More controversy for sailing sponsors as Hugo Boss under fire

Comedian Joe Lycett has legally changed his name to Hugo Boss, in a protest against the German fashion company.

The company, who often styles itself as “Boss” for premium sports sponsorship such as soccer, golf, motorsports and sailing, has been sending cease-and-desist letters to small businesses and charities who are also using the word “boss” in their names, according to the BBC.

“It’s clear that Hugo Boss hates people using their name,” Lycett wrote on Twitter.

“Unfortunately for them this week I legally changed my name by deed poll and I am now officially known as Hugo Boss.”

Hugo Boss, the company, has sponsored Alex Thomson Racing as title partner for more than 16 years, making the partnership one of the longest standing in the sport of sailing. And while Hugo Boss (the company) has dressed Alex and his team with high-performance clothing for all types of weather and formal events, and broken multiple records with the Hugo Boss racing boat, Hugo Boss (the comic) posted that the fashion house has cost small businesses “thousands in legal fees and rebranding”.

One of the most high-profile cases of recent years involved Swansea brewery company Boss Brewing

At the time, a Hugo Boss (the company) spokesman said: “Following the brewery’s application to register a trade mark, we approached them regarding the use of Boss in relation to two beer names in the portfolio.

“This was to avoid conflict and potential misunderstanding regarding the brands Boss and Boss Black, which had been used by the brewery but are (longstanding) trademarks of our company.”

According to the i newspaper in 2018, a charity called DarkGirlBoss also received a legal letter from Hugo Boss when it tried to trademark the name.

On Monday morning, the artist formerly known as Joe Lycett told the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire: “I would like them to stop doing this, because no-one is confusing these two things.

“Also I’d really like them to give them their money back really and promise to stop – and an apology would be nice.”

Lycett’s name has also now been changed to Hugo Boss on his Wikipedia page.

MIN asked Alex Thomson Racing if it’d like to comment, the organisation declined. However, Hugo Boss says: “We welcome the comedian formerly known as Joe Lycett as a member of the Hugo Boss family. As he will know, as a “well-known” trademark (as opposed to a “regular” trademark) Hugo Boss enjoys increased protection not only against trademarks for similar goods, but also for dissimilar goods across all product categories for our brands and trademarks BOSS and BOSS Black and their associated visual appearance. Following the application by Boss Brewing to register a trademark similar to our “well-known” trademark, we approached them to prevent potential misunderstanding regarding the brands BOSS and BOSS Black, which were being used to market beer and items of clothing. Both parties worked constructively to find a solution, which allows Boss Brewing the continued use of its name and all of its products, other than two beers (BOSS BLACK and BOSS BOSS) where a slight change of the name was agreed upon. As an open-minded company we would like to clarify that we do not oppose the free use of language in any way and we accept the generic term “boss” and its various and frequent uses in different languages.”

This isn’t the first time that big name sponsors have caused controversy.

Back in 2018 environment groups called for the sponsor of Sir Ben Ainslie’s Portsmouth Harbour based sailing team to be banned from the America’s Cup.

Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth said raw plastic material manufacturer INEOS is “environmentally destructive” and delivered an open letter to World Sailing urging the governing body to disassociate itself from the sponsor, according to the BBC.

The letter, delivered by anti-fracking protester Joe Corre and campaigners dressed as a dolphin, penguin, seal and seagull with plastic bags over their heads, asked World Sailing to consider the “implementation of an ethical and environmentally friendly sponsorship policy”.

And we all know how successful that was.