Warrior from TV’s Gladiators show ‘infringed trade marks’

A bodybuilder who appeared on the television show Gladiators as ‘Warrior’ infringed a company’s trademark when he used that stage name to sell nutritional supplements.

The company that took legal action over the infringement, KBF Enterprises Ltd, manufactured sports nutrition products and supplements. From November 2010, it had used several registered marks including the word ‘warrior’.

Daniel Singh was a bodybuilder who had appeared in a television show called “”Gladiators”” in 2009. His stage name was “”Warrior””. He subsequently worked in the fitness and entertainment industry. He was the director of two companies that traded in nutritional supplements called “”THE WARRIOR PROJECT”” (sometimes known as TWP) from September 2015.

The Intellectual Property Enterprise Court upheld KBF’s claim that Mr Singh and his companies had infringed its trade marks.

It held that Mr Singh’s supplements trade started in about September 2015. KBF’s marks were in use in the UK prior to that date. Mr Singh had accepted that his goods were identical or highly similar to some of those sold by KBF.

Taking into account the identical or highly similar goods, there was a likelihood of confusion between the Warrior and Warrior Supplements marks and the TWP mark.

Was Mr Singh entitled to the “”own name”” defence? The court was not persuaded that Mr Singh was trading under the name Warrior before November 2010.

The evidence of his use of Warrior, without the use of his full name, was not sufficiently consistent or extensive to show that Warrior was his trade name, even by September 2015, so his own name defence could not succeed.

Please contact Sarah Liddiard if you would like advice about intellectual property and trademarks.