\n<\/p>\n
Dryrobe, the maker of huge waterproof towel-lined coats favoured by cold water swimming fans, has won a trademark case against a smaller label that must now stop selling items under the D-Robe brand within a week.<\/p>\n
A judge at the high court in London ruled the company was guilty of passing off its D-Robe changing robes and other goods as Dryrobe products and knew it was infringing its bigger rival\u2019s trademark.<\/p>\n
The ruling described a Dryrobe as \u201can oversized waterproof coat with a towelled lining, designed for surfers or swimmers to change under whilst also drying them, keeping them warm, and protecting them from the weather\u201d.<\/p>\n
The company has rigorously defended its brand against being used generically by publications and makers of similar clothing and is expected to seek compensation from D-Robe\u2019s owners for trademark infringement.<\/p>\n
Dryrobe was created by the former financier Gideon Bright as an outdoor changing robe for surfers in 2010 and became the signature brand of the wild swimming craze.<\/p>\n
While Dryrobes shot to prominence during Covid lockdowns, when outdoor swimming became a popular alternative exercise with gyms and leisure centres shut, they are now just as likely to be sported on the high street or by dog walkers in chillier and wetter parts of the UK as they are on beaches and riverbanks.<\/p>\n
They have even sparked their own culture war. A sign appeared at a beach in Ireland warning visitors to \u201cbeware of Dryrobe wankers\u201d, which prompted a counter action online, with social media posts by fans under the hashtag #dryrobewankers.<\/p>\n
Sales of the brand, whose signature coats sport a large Dryrobe logo on the back, increased from \u00a31.3m in 2017 to \u00a320.3m in 2021 and made profits of \u00a38m. However, by 2023 sales had fallen back to \u00a318m as the passion for outdoor sports waned and the brand faced more competition.<\/p>\n
Bright said the legal win was a \u201cgreat result\u201d for Dryrobe as there were \u201cquite a lot of copycat products and [the owners] immediately try to refer to them using our brand name\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said the company was now expanding overseas and moving into a broader range of products, adding that sales were similar to 2023 as \u201ca lot of competition has come in\u201d.<\/p>\n
Judge Melissa Clarke said: \u201cIn my judgment, D-Robe and Dryrobe have a high degree of visual similarity.\u201d She said a \u201csubstantial proportion of attentive consumers\u201d who knew the Dryrobe trademarks would link and \u201cindeed confuse them\u201d with the D-Robe sign.<\/p>\n
The smaller label sought to defend itself against the claim by arguing that the term Dryrobe had become a generic descriptive term, but the judge ruled that most members of the public understood the term to be a brand name in 2022.<\/p>\n
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Sign up to Business Today<\/span><\/p>\n Get set for the working day \u2013 we’ll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n D-Robe changed its name to Delta Roam in May. A spokesperson said the rebrand had been in train before the case and it had already sold out of the majority of its D-Robe stock.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are in a good place,\u201d the spokesperson said, adding that it had recently launched a product with the backing of the model Jodie Kidd. He said the new name was part of efforts to expand in Europe and the US.<\/p>\n Geoff Steward, the co-head of the intellectual property team at Addleshaw Goddard, the law firm that represented Dryrobe in the case, said: \u201cAs well as being an interesting judgment on trademark genericide, the case highlights the importance of a clear, modern and relentless trademark strategy in protecting brands against free riding, which Dryrobe deployed to great effect.\u201d<\/p>\n The win for Dryrobe came almost two years after it settled out of court with the British fashion label Superdry in a separate trademark case.<\/p>\n Dryrobe agreed not to depict the \u201cdry\u201d element of its logo using \u201cany member of the Helvetica family of fonts\u201d after Superdry sought damages in a high court claim.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dryrobe, the maker of huge waterproof towel-lined coats favoured by cold water swimming fans, has won a trademark case against a smaller label that must now stop selling items under the D-Robe brand within a week. A judge at the high court in London ruled the company was guilty of passing off its D-Robe changing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36029,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[1844,3215,8961,20197,20196,1545,2226,2126,1833,3916,1975],"class_list":{"0":"post-36028","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-crime-justice","8":"tag-case","9":"tag-changing","10":"tag-coat","11":"tag-drobe","12":"tag-dryrobe","13":"tag-industry","14":"tag-retail","15":"tag-rival","16":"tag-trademark","17":"tag-waterproof","18":"tag-wins"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/36029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}