UFC fighter, Conor McGregor has been ordered to refrain from selling hoodies, shorts and sweaters carrying his surname in big letters or suffer large fines that could reach in excess of €250,000. A Dutch court has ordered that McGregor’s clothing company which carry the fighter’s exclusive sports clothing line to halt sales of some of his lucrative items in Europe.
Both Adidas and its subsidiary company Reebok, are liable for infringing EU trademark regulations. This follows a deal with Reebok who launched Conor McGregor’s popular signature hoodies, sports shirts and shorts with his name written on them. Now another McGregor company, a fashion label located in the Netherlands has sought a court injunction against Adidas to force Reebok to withdraw the offending garments.
The Dutch label, McGregor, is known for a high-end clubby design in Holland and other countries for many years. Legal representatives for the McGregor fashion label argued the public could be misled into assuming that some of the clothing made by Reebok for the Irish mixed martial artist and boxer was associated with their own label.
According to The Irish Times, the spat started a few months previous when Ireland-based McGregor Sports Entertainment applied to the European Trade Mark office to register Conor McGregor’s trademark on sports clothing. Dutch McGregor made an objection and the row was taken to the district court in The Hague two weeks ago. The Dutch McGregor’s lawyer Remco van Leeuwen explained “the public would be confused into believing that the clothing made by Reebok for the Irish mixed martial artist and boxer comes from the McGregor fashion house. We asked Reebok to stop selling the clothing that would confuse the public but they refused”.
Judges were told the clothing sold by Reebok “was bound to be confusing to the public because it has McGregor in huge letters while ‘Conor’ is so minuscule you hardly see it”. Defence lawyers for Adidas equated Conor McGregor’s name and popularity to such sports icons as Roger Federer and Ronaldo. They insisted the clothing was for fans who expect and want his name to be prominent on the merchandise they purchase. The court judged in favour of Dutch McGregor, ruling the signature name in big letters of the Irishman’s clothing line were a violation of trademark regulations because of a close similarity to that of the plaintiff company.
The court ordered Adidas to desist from using the signature McGregor on their clothing because of its similarity to the Dutch McGregor trademark They were given seven days and to withdraw all of that merchandise from sales outlets Europe-wide. Refusal to accept the verdict would result in the defendants having to pay McGregor of the Netherlands compensation to the tune of €1,000 euro a day,up to a maximum of €250,000.
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