Gwyneth Paltrow’s e-commerce and web company Goop.com is being sued by an author and Hunter College professor who specializes in writing about health and wellness for allegedly ripping off his trademarked name, the Diet Detective.
Charles Platkin says he was “grievously injured” when Goop began running its own column called The Diet Detective in its weekly web newsletter in July.
By reaching out to Paltrow’s people via e-mail and in phone conversations, the suit claims, Platkin said he requested that Paltrow consciously uncouple the column and the name, but Paltrow’s company failed to halt its use in its weekly e-mail blasts that went out as recently as mid-August.
The aggrieved academic filed suit in Manhattan federal court on Aug. 20.
Paltrow was originally running her digital newsletter and e-commerce site from London but has since moved into offices on Park Avenue South right in Manhattan.
Companies House in Britain said she filed to dissolve the company there in 2011. She only incorporated it as a Delaware corporation in the US earlier this year.
And it was not until Aug. 27 that she got around to listing the company with New York state as a business that was operating here — even though she had been stateside for many months.
Previous documents show that Paltrow — who had her own “conscious uncoupling” with Coldplay frontman Chris Martin in March of this year ending 10 years of marriage — has been very generous with rewarding herself with a lucrative salary despite Goop appearing to be bleeding red ink.
Companies House records filed in July 2013 and first reported by Radar Online show that the company had revenue of $1,893,653 in 2012, but posted a loss of $39,823. The 2012 loss was a big improvement from the 2011 loss of $255,312 on revenue of $260,200.
Paltrow and ex-CEO Sebastian Bishop, the only two directors listed, paid themselves a combined $589,000 in 2012 — a big jump from the $172,585 they awarded themselves in “remuneration” the preceding year. Bishop left the company suddenly earlier this year.
Professor Platkin said originally he would have settled for an apology, but he also said Paltrow’s original law firm refused to negotiate. The company is currently using a new law firm. Paltrow’s attorney, Anne Beaumont, when reached at her New York office at Friedman Kaplan Seiler & Adelman simply said, “No comment.” She declined to answer any other questions, such as who is the current CEO. A separate press inquiry to Goop was not returned.