Joe Lycett will officially be known as Hugo Boss from now on as the British Comedian has changed his name by deed poll.
The 31-year-old decided to change his name in an attempt to support the small businesses and organizations who have to spend a lot of money in dealing with the legal action taken against them by Hugo Boss for using the word ‘Boss’ in their names.
This act of the fashion giant resulted in a high-profile case that targeted Swansea-based Boss Brewing Co. However, Hugo Boss exempted two beers named Boss Boss and Boss Black, made by the same company.
In response to the fashion company’s harsh policy that had caused significant loss of money to many businesses, Lycett decided to do something.
He got his name changed and confirmed the transformation on his official Twitter account.
Posting the photo of official confirmatory script, he wrote: “So @HUGOBOSS (who turnover approx $2.7 billion a year) have sent cease & desist letters to a number of small businesses & charities who use the word ‘BOSS’ or similar, including a small brewery in Swansea costing them thousands in legal fees and rebranding.
“It’s clear that @HUGOBOSS HATES people using their name.”
He added: “Unfortunately for them this week I legally changed my name by deed poll and I am now officially known as Hugo Boss.
“All future statements from me are not from Joe Lycett but from Hugo Boss. Enjoy.”
Responding to Lycett’s move, Hugo Boss issued a lengthy statement, saying: “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.”
The statement added: “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.”
Mentioning Hugo Boss as ‘an open-minded company,’ the statement continued: “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.”
Though Hugo Boss (prior Lycett) had already done much to mock the German luxury fashion company, he claimed on his Joe Lycett’s Got Your Back show that he’ll soon be ‘launching a brand new product as Hugo Boss.’
Replaced!