Boxing great Mike Tyson is suing Aussie streetwear store Culture Kings for selling t-shirts which allegedly use his name and likeness without permission, The Sydney Morning Herald reports.
You know those retro-style shirts that are were all the rage a year ago, featuring oldschool celebs such as Tyson, Pablo Escobar, Judge Judy, Steven Bradbury and, uhh, Princess Diana? Well those are the exact same shirts Tyson is suing Culture Kings over.
Tyson has owned the trademark for his own name, “Mike Tyson”, since 2010. Yet the store sold these t-shirts featuring not only the boxer’s face, but also phrases like “Mike Tyson”, “Iron Mike”, and “Kid Dynamite”.
“References to the Applicant [Tyson], images of the Applicant, and the words ‘Mike Tyson’, ‘Tyson’, ‘Iron Mike’, ‘Iron Mike Tyson’, and ‘Kid Dynamite’, would cause a consumer to associate a product bearing those references, images and words with the Applicant, and with the Applicant’s international fame, reputation and recognition,” court filings lodged last Friday claim.
Tyson is now seeking losses, damages, an injunction on the sale of the t-shirts in question, and to receive all profits made from them so far.
The proceedings were filed against Culture Kings founding couple Simon and Tah-nee Beard, as well as the entire Culture Kings group of companies.
The Beards recently made the AFR Rich List with an estimated net worth of $626 million.
Their retail empire includes seven Culture Kings stores around Australia, plus one in New Zealand and one in the US. Let’s not forget the online store, either.
This isn’t the first time someone has tried to sue Culture Kings over the use of their likeness (Nathan Apodaca, the TikTok skateboarder dude, threatened to do so last year).
But given that the company is now looking to expand across the US, a high-profile case from an American sporting legend is sure to get a decent amount attention.
