Mixed martial arts star Conor McGregor has been banned from selling sportswear bearing his surname after losing a legal battle with a fashion label founded by a Scot.
McGregor, who competes in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), has to stop selling some of his signature clothing in Europe because it has broken EU-wide trademark laws.
The Irishman’s lucrative hoodies, shorts and sweaters, which bear his signature in huge letters, must be withdrawn from sale or he will have to pay compensation to the McGregor fashion label.
It was founded by Scottish businessman David Doniger almost 100 years ago and is now owned by a Dutch company.
A hat maker by trade, Doniger was a member of Clan Gregor and started producing clothing using its official tartan.
He established the company when he emigrated to New York in 1921.
The District Court in The Hague ordered Adidas and its subsidiary Reebok, which sells the 30-year-old’s exclusive sports clothing line, to withdraw garments sold in Europe.
Following a high profile deal with the UFC, Reebok launched Conor McGregor’s popular clothing emblazoned with his name.
But the McGregor fashion label sought a court injunction against Adidas to force them to withdraw their garments.
Their legal team claimed the public could be confused into believing some of the products made by Reebok for the Dublin-born star was part of their McGregor label.
Lawyer Remco van Leeuwen said: “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 confused the public but they refused.”
Judges heard 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”.
In a written judgement, the court found in favour of the Scottish-inspired McGregor, ruling the signature name in big letters of the fighter on the hoodie, shorts and jersey were a contravention of trademark regulations because it was similar to that of the plaintiffs.
Part of the McGregor clan, Doniger could trace his roots back to the first kings of Scotland and, possessing both a keen eye for business and strong sense of style, he had made enough money for the voyage to America by making caps out of the McGregor tartan.
Once in the US, Doniger set up a business and introduced his Scottish plaids to New York and beyond.
In February 2013, senior figures at the UFC announced that they had signed McGregor as part of a multi-fight contract.
McGregor, who was born in the Crumlin area of Dublin, became only the second fighter from Ireland to compete for the company after Tom Egan.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here