A planned clothing line by Max Verstappen has been stopped in its tracks by Nike.
De Limburger newspaper reports that the back-to-back world champion intended to call it ‘Max 1’ – which Nike argued is too close to their ‘Air Max’ shoe line.
The Belelux Office for Intellectual Property confirmed that an investigation took place and that Nike ultimately had a strong argument.
“The goods in question are partly identical and partly similar,” the report apparently said.
“There is a certain visual and phonetic similarly between the signs,” the intellectual property office added, agreeing that there is a “likelihood of confusion”.
“The public might think that the contested sign is a sub-brand of the opposing party (Nike).”
(GMM)
