Mike Ashley wins trademark appeal, throwing out eye-watering damages bill
The retail empire of business tycoon Mike Ashley has won an appeal challenging damages awarded in a trademark infringement claim, sidestepping paying a potentially stinging bill.
The judgment follows a longstanding legal dispute between the discount sports retailer and the Beverly Hills Polo Club brand, owned and managed by Lifestyle Equities, which argued Ashley’s Sports Direct had infringed its trademark through goods sold under the ‘Santa Monica Polo Club’ brand.
Lifestyle Equities had tried to claim damages costs for itself but also losses suffered by other companies which pay to use its brand name.
Sports Direct, known as Fraser’s Group since 2019, lost the infringement case in 2018 but appealed against the damages it was ordered to pay, arguing in April that that the cost should be curtailed as it alleged the third party companies using the Beverly Hills Polo Club brand name weren’t officially registered in the UK.
The Court of Appeal today sided with the retailer and said in its judgment it dismisses the damages claims as it is “too late” for Lifestyle Equities to register the licenses following the start of the lawsuit in 2018 to claim the damages as it was nearly a decade ago, falling after the legal expiry period.
Therefore, it said, the claims “appear to be well out of time”, and the excess damages costs would create an “unprincipled windfall” for the other companies.
Sports Direct said in its appeal that without correct public registration an accused infringer can be “suddenly confronted with a Trojan Horse full of licensees claiming damages” they have no awareness of, leading to “a charter of unjust enrichment” if a trademark owner can recover money for unregistered partners as well as their own financial losses.
Today marks a significant win for the company as it has kicked out what could have been a much weightier damages charge.
This follows Morning Wire revealing that law firm RPC lost one of its steepest-billing lawyers, Jeremy Drew, who represents Ashley, after he left to join Taylor Wessing.
Ashley behind rival’s demise
Ashley, who founded the company in 1982 and was chief executive until he stepped down in 2022, recently admitted he was behind the downfall of his rival, former JD Sports boss Peter Cowgill.
Cowgill was chief executive of JD Sports until he stood down in 2022 following a fine from the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) after footage was leaked of him speaking to Footasylum chief executive Barry Brown in a carpark.
JD Sports had been in the process of acquiring Footasylum and both chief executives were barred from sharing commercially sensitive information, so the leak led to both firms being hit with nearly £5m in fines.
The business tycoon last weekend for the first time confessed to organising and leaking the footage, clarifying to the Financial Times that the footage was obtained by one of his employees and he was “not hiding from the fact” that he was behind Cowgill’s downfall.