Lewis Hamilton suffers major setback off the track, loses trademark case on his name

In a huge blow to Lewis Hamilton's entrepreneurial aspirations for a personal brand, the British race car driver lost a long-fought battle to trademark the name 'Hamilton'. The Hamilton trademark case dates back three years, when Lewis Hamilton's company, 44IP, took Swiss watchmakers ‘Hamilton’ to court over an alleged copyright issue. 44IP, named so in a nod to Hamilton's car number, took the Swatch-owned company to court after the latter applied for permission to exclusively use the term 'Hamilton' in Europe. 

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Hamilton trademark case comes to an end

Lewis Hamilton's legal bid to trademark the name ‘Lewis Hamilton’ for a line of watches and smartwatches among other things, has been thwarted by a European court. In their plea to the court, Hamiton's team alleged that the luxury Swiss watchmakers Hamilton International had filed a copyright claim for the term 'Hamilton' in ‘bad faith' and that the move 'thwarted fair competition’. They also claimed that the term had never been used by the company before. 

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The Hamilton International brand, however, has been around much longer than the Mercedes-AMG Petronas driver. Created in 1892, the brand said that they had all the grounds to copyright the 'Hamilton' name. This has led to the European Union Intellectual Property Office ruling in favour of the watchmakers and throwing out Lewis Hamilton's plea to cancel the trademark, stating: "Even the cancellation applicant explicitly accepted that the contested mark ‘HAMILTON’ had been used since 1892, i.e. even before the date of birth of ‘Lewis Hamilton’ as a natural person." 

In its ruling, the EUIPO adjudged "The argument relating to the IP rights of the racing driver ‘Lewis Hamilton’ fails. The contested mark consists solely of one word ‘HAMILTON’, and not ‘LEWIS HAMILTON’. It is a rather common surname in English-speaking countries." They also added: "There is no natural right for a person to have his or her own name registered as a trademark when that would infringe third parties’ rights."

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Lewis Hamilton net worth figure

Lewis Hamilton was ranked 13th on Forbes' list of 'The World's Highest-Paid Athletes 2020'. According to Forbes, Hamilton's endorsement deals with Bose, L'Oréal, Mercedes-Benz, Monster Energy, Police, Puma, Sony, Tommy Hilfiger and Vodafone-USD contributed $12 million to the star's fortunes in 2020 alone. After his record-equalling 7th World Championship win, Hamilton is set for a substantially large increase on his current salary of $42 million. Celebrity Net Worth estimates his net worth at $285 million.

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Disclaimer: The above mentioned Hamilton net worth figure has been sourced from various websites and media reports. This website does not guarantee 100% accuracy of the same.  

Image Credits: Lewis Hamilton Twitter