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A sexual health company has sued Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop for copyright infringement, saying the association is 'harmful' to its brand

A sexual health company has sued Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop for copyright infringement, saying the association is 'harmful' to its brand
  • Good Clean Love Inc. filed a lawsuit against Gwyneth Paltrow's company, Goop.

  • Good Clean Love is suing for copyright infringement, among other complaints.

  • The lawsuit was filed to "prevent the calamitous situation."

Gwyneth Paltrow's wellness and lifestyle brand, Goop, is facing a trademark infringement lawsuit related to a collection of its sexual health products.

Good Clean Love Inc. filed its lawsuit against Goop on March 28, according to court documents obtained by Business Insider. The lawsuit also accused Goop of false advertising and unfair competition.

Gwyneth Paltrow at The MAKERS Conference 2024 .
Gwyneth Paltrow.Emma McIntyre/Getty Images

Good Clean Love filed the lawsuit "to prevent the calamitous situation where a junior trademark user, with substantial economic power, saturates the marketplace with a trademark that threatens to overtake a smaller senior user's mark and usurp the senior user's reputation and goodwill."

Good Clean Love said in its lawsuit that Goop applied to register the "Good. Clean. Goop" trademark in 2023 for several products like cosmetics and nutritional supplements. Goop then used that trademark with sexual health products, which Good Clean Love described as "the core" of its business, according to the lawsuit.

"Good Clean Love cannot compete with Goop's market saturation," the company said in court documents. "The confusion and reverse confusion created by Goop's use of GOOD. CLEAN. GOOP threatens to foreclose Good Clean Love from expanding into product lines related to its sexual health and wellness products. Good Clean Love's hard-earned goodwill is at risk of falling into the hands of Goop, the junior user."

Representatives for Good Clean Love and Goop did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Gwyneth Paltrow And Kerry Washington doing The Goop podcast.
A Goop event.Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images

Good Clean Love — which described the situation as "intolerable" — noted in the lawsuit that Paltrow founded Goop in 2008 and quickly grew into a "cultural phenomenon" that garnered frequent media attention. In comparison, Good Clean Love described itself as a smaller senior business founded in 2003.

"Without prompt assistance from this Court, Goop's adoption of the mark GOOD. CLEAN. GOOP threatens to overwhelm the GOOD CLEAN LOVE trademark and undermine Good Clean Love's two decades of investment in its goodwill and reputation," the lawsuit says.

Both brands sell products on major retailers like Amazon, so their products " directly collide" and could cause confusion for shoppers, Good Clean Love said.

Court documents showed that Good Clean Love also said being associated with Goop is " harmful," writing that Goop has faced lawsuits in the past for "unfounded health claims about its products."

"These associations are particularly harmful to Good Clean Love, which has built its reputation and brand on safe, organic, scientific, and exhaustively researched sexual wellness products." the lawsuit said.

Gwyneth Paltrow at a Goop event in September 2019.
Gwyneth Paltrow at a Goop event in September 2019.Stefanie Keenan

Goop settled a $145,000 lawsuit in 2018 related to its $66 "Jade Egg," which it claimed could balance hormones and regulate menstrual cycles, among other features. California prosecutors said those health claims "were not supported by competent and reliable science."

A Texas man filed a separate lawsuit in May 2021 after claiming a $75 vagina-scented candle from Goop exploded. Paltrow called the lawsuit "frivolous" in a statement to NBC News.

Read the original article on Business Insider