Feb 24, 2017
NHL fights subpoena for records related to Reebok deal
A judge has been asked to order the National Hockey League to turn over all documents, contracts and financial statements related to its sponsorship agreement with the sports apparel company Reebok.
A judge has been asked to order the National Hockey League to turn over all documents, contracts and financial statements related to its sponsorship agreement with the sports apparel company Reebok.
The request was made in U.S. federal court in New York by TRB Acquisitions, a New York-based company embroiled in a trademark fight with Reebok’s parent company, Adidas.
Adidas sued TRB in 2015 over its RBX brand of shoes. Adidas said it owns a trademark for RBK and that the RBX brand causes confusion among consumers. Adidas has asked the court to order TRB Acquisitions to stop selling products that allegedly infringe on the Adidas and Reebok patents. Reebok adopted the RBK logo in 2002 and “has invested millions of dollars to advertise and promote its RBK mark,” Adidas wrote.
On June 3, 2016, the NHL was served with a subpoena from a lawyer for TRB, demanding the league hand over all of its license and sponsorship agreements with Adidas or Reebok related to the Reebok or RBK brand.
TRB’s subpoena also demanded details from the NHL of how much NHL-branded merchandise Reebok had sold since Jan. 1, 2007.
TRB argues that Reebok abandoned the RBK trademark and alleges that the NHL’s records may unveil correspondence or other documents that establish when Reebok began to phase out its use of the RBK brand.
On Jan. 27, TRB asked the court to rule on its demand that the NHL turn over the documents it has requested. TRB says that it can’t get the documents from Reebok because the company does not preserve emails older than five years.
It's unclear when the court will hold a hearing to discuss the dispute.
Even if the NHL is ordered to turn over its contracts with Reebok and Adidas and related documents, it’s uncertain whether those documents would be made public.
The NHL – which in September 2015 announced a seven-year contract with Adidas to produce its uniforms that begins with the 2017-18 season – wrote in a response that it objects to the subpoena because it seeks documents protected by attorney-client privilege.
“TRB’s motion reflects a classic fishing expedition, one that would force [the NHL] to wade through tens of thousands of emails and other documents in the hopes of finding relevant documents about its third-party licensee Reebok’s trademarks,” the NHL wrote in a Feb. 17 court filing.
Complying with the subpoena, the NHL says, would mean searching 157,000 documents. It would cost the league at least $1.5 million to conduct the search.
TRB has made a similar demand for documents from the National Football League, which has also had a sponsorship agreement with Reebok.