Coming up with a brand name is no easy feat. Some brand founders land on names by happenstance, while others painstakingly select a name with deep meaning for what they’re building and their lives. Regardless, it often takes many, many months to settle on a name, and even after settling on a name, there can be circumstances where the name no longer aligns with messaging or causes unforeseen trademark issues, leading brands to go another route or litigate.
For the latest edition of our ongoing series posing questions relevant to indie beauty, we checked in with nine founders who either changed their brands’ names or are in the midst of protecting an existing name. We asked them the following questions: Why did you decide to move away from a previous brand name or fight for your brand name due to trademark issues? What costs and considerations went into the decision?
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Tiila Abbitt Founder, Athr Beauty Athr Beauty was once Aether Beauty. The company sued both me and my husband individually and as a company on the original Aether spelling, by a company that had a trademark in ski jackets that they were trying to assert against our brand. Their argument being that maybe one day they would decide to go into the beauty sector.
Being a self-funded brand at the time, we did not have the funds to defend our case through litigation, so we decided to take part in mediation as part of the litigation. The only outcome that was acceptable to avoid a full on lawsuit was to change the spelling.
Unfortunately, we had to sell out of our old inventory for the new updated inventory with the new spelling, which meant we had to put our products on sale, which hurt the integrity of the brand—and it was during COVID. The legal costs of doing this was $50,000 versus a $1 million cost of a lawsuit to defend our right to the original spelling, plus the cost of repurchasing all of our SKUs with the new spelling and lost sales due to the need to discount.
- Ada Hsieh Founder, Fluency Beauty
I decided to move away from my previous brand name because I wanted it to have a deeper meaning for everyone who comes in touch with it, to really build a brand that resonated with people.
It came at a good time for me because I sold out of the old brand and was reformulating so it was a perfect alignment. The cost was really minimal in that way, where I just had to register for a new trademark. I had to buy new everything anyway, so I really feel like it was meant to be.
- Stu Jolley Founder, Stories & Ink
We moved away from our previous brand name Electric Ink Skincare due to a trademark issue in the U.S. Being a U.K. brand, we knew it would be extremely difficult to enter the U.S. market whilst fighting a legal battle with a company much bigger than us. I think sometimes you have to pick your battles, and this was one we couldn’t win.
I therefore made the difficult decision of rebranding. The cost to the business was both time and money. We knew we could sell off existing stock, but a full rebrand slowed us for several months. Rather than dwell on the setback, I used this time to learn how to scale the business via DTC, shadowed a business in Denmark and also got super close to our customer. On this journey, setbacks are inevitable, so I think its how you overcome these obstacles where the growth happens.
Through this difficult time, Stories & Ink was born and the new name put our customer (and their tattoo stories) at the heart of everything we do. It was the best thing that could've happened to us in hindsight.
- Aishetu Dozie Founder, Bossy Cosmetics
My connection to the name Bossy Cosmetics has taken on a very deep significance in my life and the brand's journey. The root of the brand is to empower women to be ambitious and the mission is to elevate our voices and experiences so that we take up space. The name of the brand isn’t just a name, it’s a lifestyle and belief system, so you can imagine that having fought for over four years to keep the name has felt almost like a righteous fight.
Hugo Boss, a German fashion house, has been acting as a corporate tyrant in trying to get me to limit use of the trademark, and it’s cost me an incredible amount in emotional, mental and financial distress. It’s been a battle I’m willing to fight to the end because I know that we are not infringing on their trademarks, and I know that they have a track record of bullying smaller companies. The fight has taken a life of its own, and I’m excited to defend our use of the trademark in court next year. Some battles are worth fighting in principle.
- Laura Thompson Co-Founder, Three Ships
When we changed the brand name from Niu Body to Three Ships, it was driven by us not being able to get the trademark in the U.S. without going through a court battle to show how we were different from the other mark on the market.
At the time, we were a very small brand doing less than $1 million in revenue. We decided that it wasn't worth it to go through the cost, time and uncertainty of fighting the mark. We also were able to take the learnings that we had from the Niu Body brand name and identify and morph it into what's now the Three Ships brand. It was 1,000% the right decision for us, even though it was incredibly stressful to launch what was essentially a new company.
- Chrissy Cabrera Founder, Naturally London
Rebranding was an easy decision for me when I hit roadblocks with my original business name. Interestingly, Naturally London was the name I wanted from the start, but, at the time, it was taken by a hair salon in London. Two years later, when my initial trademark was denied, I started exploring names that would give my business room to grow, and to my surprise, Naturally London was available.
I quickly transitioned to the new name and filed for the trademark, and within a year, it was approved. That initial setback turned out to be a blessing, allowing us to secure the name we have today. The only cost incurred was the fee for the original trademark, but. to me, it wasn’t a loss, it was simply part of the journey to something meant to be.
- Wendy Strgar Founder, Good Clean Love
Having been on both sides of this issue, the laws surrounding trademarks are not as robust as one would hope. Even if you can't get a trademark, some companies, including large celebrity brands, will use the trademark, and it is costly to enforce these weak laws. However, like patents, your trademarks are only as valuable as your willingness to protect them.
- Karen Young Founder, Oui The People
We decided to move away from our initial brand name, Oui Shave, because the vision and roadmap for the brand encapsulated so much more than shaving. In 2019, we pivoted to the name Oui the People as we wanted to better reflect the diversity we were seeing across our consumer base.
We had only fully been in existence for two years at that point, and we actually did have a company take the name once our website expired, but, at that point, we'd put in a lot of work to communicate the name change, had incredibly strong branding/awareness and knew retail expansion was in our near future. We focused on the future not the past name.
- Sheena Lister Founder, The Barb Shop
When we launched three years ago, our brand was called Barb, a name I loved so much! Shortly after launching and registering our trademark, Mattel (Barbie) filed a trademark infringement case against us. I was not willing to simply drop the case and change our name, so decided to fight it.
Two years and many emails between lawyers later, we settled on dropping Barb and rebranding to The Barb Shop. To be honest, I was glad Mattel settled on us keeping The Barb Shop as that was our URL and social media handle at the time.
The cost to settle was not insignificant as we were required to rebrand and change our packaging. Mattel gave us $6,000 in the end, which was something, but not close to what it cost to cover legal and the rebrand. I am happy the "case" is behind us and even happier that we can move forward with The Barb Shop!
If you have a question you’d like Beauty Independent to ask beauty entrepreneurs, please send it to editor@beautyindependent.com.
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