Dear friend,
Thank you for sticking with me through the storm and encouraging me to move forward.
Today officially marks the end of my 11-year employment agreement with my former employer. While I had great expectations for this August 1, 2022 update, I am disappointed to share that my former employer argued that my employment agreement prohibits me, or others, from identifying myself to the trade or consuming public as the designer of any goods in competition with the products of my former employer for a period of 5 years from the end of my contract. The District Court found that this prohibition applies even if I were to identify myself as the designer of competing products under a new name.
With respect to Instagram and Pinterest, the District Court has awarded full control to my previous employer for now. My biggest motivation in fighting for these accounts comes from the impact my lawsuit will have on the future of case law for social media.
I will be appealing both of these decisions.
Despite all of this, I am so grateful that so many of you have found me over here and are continuing to share my story. And the good news is that we can create our own good news…
I am happy to announce that I will be pursuing a new venture in a product category that is not competitive with my previous employer AND debuting a newly formed philanthropic initiative that will provide resources to safeguard the interests of young women and creatives during the formative years of their career.
I will be sharing sneak peeks very soon so grab the link in bio to join a new mailing list.
AND FINALLY, I will be announcing my new name on August 8th. I can't wait to share it with you!
Peace, love, and light be with you 🦄
5 things I've leaned into lately... plus a reminder to do a mental health check with friends 🙏🏼🦄
Thank you @jayglazer for the UNBREAKABLE vibes when so many of us need it most.
How it is going…
Thank you for sharing this message and helping me inform more people about the harm of noncompetes and overbearing contracts.
All things considered, hope is still in tact 🙏🏼🦄.
A LITTLE MORE ABOUT MY CURRENT SITUATION:
-Under the preliminary injunction still in place, I am still not allowed to use my name even to publicly identify myself on social media.
-My appeal results gave relief with respect to social media. I only have control of my original TikTok at this time. You can refer to my post on March 18th, 2022 for specific details.
-Contrary to some of the opinions I’ve seen in media articles, I did not sell my name for a lump sum of compensation. I signed an employment agreement, which I believe allowed my name to be registered as a trademark for a bridal collection I designed.
- With respect to changing my name, I have been curtailed. The recent contempt motion granted against me has stopped me from announcing any future plans or from releasing a new name. I am in the process of appealing the contempt motion.
- I am still not currently receiving any commission on any of my previous designs or my name that JLM is still selling and profiting from. I’ve spent all the money I ever made as a designer to defend myself against this corporation. Considering my skill set, I’ve had a very traumatic time finding employment that does not violate the preliminary injunction. It is for this reason, that I believe noncompete agreements are detrimental to individuals.
- My fiancé is still being sued despite not having a contract or any employment with JLM.
- With respect to the expiration date on my noncompete, this is something I am not allowed to publicly speak on but am grateful that the public has access to many of the court case filings.
Workout … but make it eating & drinking 😉.
#takebacktuesday to partner workouts in quarantine 💪🏼🍹
**Lawsuit Update**
Thank you for continuing to share and care about this.
Quick facts about my legal situation:
-I cannot use my own name in business or commerce, including social media or publicly.
-JLM refuses to pay me commission and other compensation related to the sale of my designs, including the commission I earned in 2020 (since November of 2019).
-I am not designing any new dresses for JLM. JLM has hired a new designer and I am no longer involved in any way.
-I still do not have my self-named social media accounts back.
-My fiancé Conrad Louis is also being sued and his response papers are due on July 26th.
-I am appealing all of these the court orders and hope that my appeal will be heard by the end of the year.
Repost from 5/4 ***Today (5/4) is Conrad and my third anniversary of the day we met. Unfortunately, we woke up to news that JLM has now sued Conrad personally related to his using my own birth name. Of all days for this to happen, I find it particularly personal and heart wrenching that they picked today that is so meaningful to us both.
I’ve tried really hard to stay optimistic in this lawsuit and focus on the things I have as opposed to what has been taken from me, but I also know that bad days are inevitable. Unfortunately, today is one of those days where I am struggling. I was hesitant to do another video because I don’t like sharing and wearing negative news, but I also feel like your support has encouraged me to be brave in addressing this stuff head on.
Over the past 9 years of running my original Instagram as a personal account, I’ve had countless people use my name and tag me as a human or in reference to services and products. 9 years of being called by my name and being referred to as a human by bridal stores, photographers, friends, companies, memes, and posts .... is JLM planning to come after all these people for trademark infringement as well?
I feel that JLM is targeting my fiancé now because they see him as an opportunity to further drag this lawsuit out and further drain us financially. I believe this is a shameful affront to common decency and sets a terrible precedent for human beings on social media. Unfortunately, this kind of behavior is completely consistent with the way I was treated while working at JLM.
In case you had any doubts about JLM's motivation in this lawsuit, I feel that dragging my fiancé into this is proof of their desire to escalate and exercise ill will against me, my loved ones, and a community or anyone that supports me.
What’s more, JLM is now trying to charge me with defamation for my public videos, like the one you are watching now... that I have created to keep you informed and up to date on the details
Today We Filed My Response to JLM’s False Claims About Me and My Instagram
Let me walk you through the papers. To read them in full, go to the link below 👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/mobile/folders/1w_yJ_hYkNXQsg6t2elCUp3uRQGlHSuUC?usp=sharing
Some key facts to highlight:
1. I started using my name and the URL “handle” associated with the accounts in 2004 when I was a student at Cornell—seven years before starting work at JLM Couture. That URL, also the handle of the Instagram account in dispute, was a term of endearment that my mother coined.
2. Contrary to JLM’s claims, the accounts that JLM seeks ownership of are personal and feature pictures of me, my parents, fiancé, and dog, and my deeply personal thoughts and experiences. As the hundreds of examples show, JLM’s sworn claim that that account was “wedding gowns all the time” is demonstrably false.
3. When JLM took over the account by court order and began deceptively posting without notifying anyone it wasn’t me, you all noticed the abrupt change of content and tone and posting thousands of messages letting them know. In response to their public expressions, JLM simply turned off comments on all posts, damaging my account’s value and relationship with its 1.1 million followers.
4. My agreement with JLM contains no mention or provisions regarding social media accounts. In fact, JLM has always known the Instagram account was my personal account, and the filing contains several emails from JLM employees noting this. Several former JLM employees have filed sworn affidavits confirming that it was always known that I owned my personal Instagram account.
Today’s episode highlight with the legendary @leslieosborne12 💗 ... just in case you need an oomph of optimism 💪🏼 link in bio! #episode17
New Episode Alert🚨: we flip the switch 💡 on this one and answer YOUR questions 🥰
Thanks for the help 🧚♀️
🎼 I feel like @allthatglittersonthegram 🎶
