Russell Brand wins copyright battle with Scottish sportswear firm

RUSSELL Brand has won a battle with a Scottish-based sportswear firm that wanted to stop him registering his own name as a trademark.

The makers of the Russell Athletic clothing range argued that customers would confuse their products with a range of merchandise being launched by the Los Angeles-based comedian and actor, and bearing his name.

The sporting brand, which has its European headquarters in Livingston, said the two names were too similar to each other, and allowing the controversial star's products to go ahead could damage their sales in Britain.

Brand, 35, applied to the UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) in 2008 to register his name as a trademark on a range of products including clothing, footwear and headgear.

However, the Russell Corporation launched a legal action to prevent the move.

Both Brand's representatives and the clothing company filed evidence to the IPO, before a hearing last month found in the former Radio 2 presenter's favour.

Andrew Antonio, Brand's business manager, told the hearing that his client was an "extremely well-known person" in his own right, and argued that consumers were unlikely to confuse him with the sportswear brand.

He said the comic first came to prominence after appearing at the Edinburgh Festival in 2000 and had gone on to host a number of television programmes and had appeared in films.

"Russell Brand is an extremely well-known person in the United Kingdom, having attained significant success in numerous fields: comedian, actor, national newspaper columnist, author and presenter in both radio and television," he said.

However, lawyers for the Russell Corporation claimed the trademarks were identical and said Brand was not known for being associated with clothing. They also said he was less well known when he applied for the trademark in 2008.

However, hearing officer Oliver Morris found there was "no likelihood of direct confusion" between the two trademarks.

He said: "The evidence paints a fairly compelling picture that the fame of Mr Brand is more wide-reaching and he is more generally known than argued.

"I come to the view that the average consumer in the UK will have been aware of Mr Brand's fame at the relevant date.

"I must also bear in mind the concept of imperfect recollection. Weighing all the relevant factors, together with the degree of similarity between the marks and their conceptual significances, I come to the view that there is no likelihood of direct confusion.

"The average consumer will recall and take into account that one mark is for a person's full name and the other mark is simply a person's forename together with a word indicating the type of clothing (athletic) being provided."

The Russell Corporation was also ordered to pay 1,500 towards Brand's legal costs. No-one from the company was available for comment.

'TOXIC' SACHSGATE SCANDAL

The Sachsgate scandal revealed "unforgivably cavalier" attitudes at the BBC, according to the outgoing chairman of the BBC Trust. Jonathan Ross, right, was suspended for 12 weeks without pay in 2008 after he and Russell Brand left obscene messages on Andrew Sachs' answerphone which were broadcast on Brand's Radio 2 show. Sir Michael Lyons called it a "toxic combination of profanity, misogyny, bullying and black farce" in a speech at the London School of Economics.