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Formula One star comes under fire after Nike trade mark challenge

Formula One world champion Max Verstappen has been of a winning streak of late. Having won both the world championship in 2021 and 2022, he is certainly the focus of the F1 world at the moment.

However, his attempt at global domination hasn’t gone to plan.

Formula One Star Trademark Battle

As Max is the current world champion, he has the opportunity to race under the number ‘1’. He has tried to capitalise on this by developing ‘Max 1’ clothing and merchandise.

Formula One Star Trademark Battle - Lawdit Professional 2023
© Chris Peeters (Pixabay)

However, this has been challenged by Nike. Nike have a wide range of brands, but a popular one is the Nike Air Max range. They sell a very popular ‘Nike Air Max 1’ shoe within this range.

Following an application by Verstappen at the Benelux Intellectual Property Office, Nike has sought to oppose the application. Earlier mark owners can file an opposition against an ongoing trade mark application if they believe that the new application is too similar to their registered mark.

On consideration of Nike’s opposition, the Benelux Intellectual Property Office which is the registration office for trademarks and designs in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg agreed with the opposition.

The Office confirms that there is a likelihood of confusion due to the similarity between the marks and the classes.

The application is therefore unlikely to be able to proceed in relation to class 25 which covers clothing, footwear and headgear.

If you would like to know more about challenging a trade mark application with an opposition, then please do get in touch with the team today.  

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Ellis Sweetenham

Ellis is a contentious and non-contentious intellectual property (IP) solicitor at Lawdit Solicitors. Ellis also is an the Director and an intellectual property law consultant at Lawdit’s sister company Trademarkroom. Ellis qualified as a solicitor in 2019, and over her qualified years has gained valuable experience in all contentious and non- contentious matters relating to trade marks, copyright, designs and patents. Ellis has represented clients in a variety of matters, including those relating to infringement, licensing, oppositions, cancellations, invalidations, assignment, portfolio management, pre-filing due diligence and registration. This includes matters before the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court, UK Intellectual Property Office, EU Intellectual Property Office and Word Intellectual Property Organisation. In addition to IP matters, Ellis is also experienced in other commercial law matters, including music law, defamation, data protection, civil litigation and commercial disputes. Ellis has built a reputation for being detail-focused and thorough, always available to provide clients with the highest level of client care. Ellis acts with the highest level of professionalism to ensure that her clients are well informed and their best interests are at the centre of all advice given and action taken. Ellis is a regular on the Lawdit Solicitors Mark Wing Podcast, and has written many legal articles, both for Lawdit and Trademarkroom’s reading room, as well as for external IP publications. Ellis is based in our Isle of Wight office.