Manchester City faces legal action from Superdry over training kit deal

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English football club Manchester City is facing a High Court injunction application from fashion retailer Superdry over claims a sponsorship deal with Japanese brewer Asahi’s Super Dry brand infringes trademark rights.

The London-listed clothing company last month filed a claim with the court calling for the world’s richest club to stop showing the beer brand on its sportswear.

“The differences between Super Dry and Superdry are so insignificant that they may go unnoticed by the average consumer,” it alleged.

Manchester City announced Asahi’s Super Dry 0,0%, a non-alcoholic beer, as its official “training kit partner” in July.

Under the deal, the brand features on the front of all men’s and women’s first-team training strips. It expanded a sponsorship arrangement that began in 2022. A special shipment of Asahi Super Dry cans was delivered into Manchester by boat at a launch event.

City Football Group said at the time of the announcement last July that the brand “align[s] with our values” and also “allows us to explore further expansion in key markets”.

In the legal claim, first reported by the Telegraph, Superdry said the club’s use of the Super Dry brand “takes unfair advantage of or causes detriment to the distinctive character or the repute” of its trademark.

Superdry also said “the word Asahi is not consistently fully visible” when the Super Dry brand is shown by the club.

In the documents lodged with the court, which feature several pictures of Manchester City sportswear and of Superdry clothing, the retailer stated that it deployed its brand with various “permutations and configurations” — including when the words “Super” and “Dry” are displayed one on top of the other, as they appear on the Manchester City kit.

Philip Roberts KC, acting for Superdry, wrote that “the appearance of the Sponsored Kit is liable to deceive a substantial number of members of the UK public into believing that the Sponsored Kit is clothing designed or sold by the Claimants”.

Manchester City declined to comment.

The UK clothing chain and the Japanese brewer have been battling over their branding for years.

Superdry’s listed shares have slumped 80 per cent in the past 12 months as the indebted retailer has suffered from waning consumer demand. In September, it reported an adjusted pre-tax loss of £21.7mn for the year ending in April, compared to a profit of £21.6mn a year earlier.

The company has been shedding assets to bolster its balance sheet. In October, it sold its intellectual property rights in South Asia to Reliance Brands, India’s largest retailer, in a £40mn deal.