Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group Wins Trademark Appeal Against Beverly Hills Polo Club
Mike Ashley’s retail empire has scored a landmark court success after the Court of Appeal handed down a huge cash award in a long-running trademark infringement dispute, sparing the FTSE-listed group what could have proved a financial penalty.
The decision brought to a head a long-running dispute between the Shirebrook-based sports chain, which was rebranded as Frasers Group in 2019, and Lifestyle Equities, the company that owns and licenses the Beverly Hills Polo Club marquee. Lifestyle Equities had alleged that Ashley’s group infringed on its trademark by flogging goods under the rival ‘Santa Monica Polo Club’ label, a claim it first filed in 2018.
Frasers had lost an infringement case seven years ago but launched a new challenge against the measure of damages that had been ordered to be liquidated. At a hearing in April, the retailer’s lawyers argued that the bill should be reduced because third-party companies trading under the name Beverly Hills Polo Club, and on whose behalf Lifestyle Equities is trying to recover losses, were never legally registered as licensees in the United Kingdom.
The Court of Appeal sided with the high street giant, ruling that it was “too late” for Lifestyle Equities to re-register the licenses in question. With the first claim in 2018 and the licensing systems going back almost a decade, the court concluded that the additional claims “seem out of time” and that allowing them to pass would amount to “violations” for businesses that did not properly register themselves in the public register.
Counsel for Frasers warned during the appeal that allowing these applications to succeed would expose the alleged infringers to avoid prosecution, leaving the defendants “faced with a Trojan Horse full of licensees seeking compensation” of which they had no prior knowledge. Without strict adherence to public registration, the seller’s legal team said, the state risks becoming an “unjust enrichment charter”, allowing trademark owners to collect compensation for unregistered partners and their losses.
The decision represents a tangible win for Frasers, overturning a potentially eye-watering damages bill which, had it stood, would have set a negative precedent for the wider retail industry. The decision is likely to be closely scrutinized by intellectual property lawyers and product owners alike, given the implications for how licensing schemes must be legally drafted for use in British courts.
The official win follows news first reported by City AM that the magic law firm close to RPC has lost one of its highest-paid partners, Jeremy Drew, who represents Ashley personally, to Taylor Wessing.
The trademark victory comes hard after the rare endorsement of Ashley, the man who founded Sports Direct in his hometown of Burnham in 1982 and ran it as chief executive until he handed over the reins to son-in-law Michael Murray in 2022.
The 61-year-old billionaire has confirmed publicly for the first time that he was responsible for the downfall of his most prominent rival in retail, former JD Sports chairman Peter Cowgill.
Cowgill is stepping down from the FTSE 100 coaching list in 2022 following an investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority, which was launched after footage leaked of him in a secret car park meeting with Footasylum chief executive Barry Brown. The pair were apparently banned from exchanging commercially sensitive information when JD Sports tried to acquire Footasylum, and the leaked image led to the CMA fining the two businesses almost £5m.
In an interview with the Financial Times last weekend, Ashley admitted that the video was found by one of his staff and said he was “not hiding” that he was the architect of Cowgill’s removal, an apparent admission that lifts the lid on one of the most colorful boardroom disputes in recent British retail history.
