A legal battle between Australia’s famous Kyles could be on the cards.
Swimming champion Kyle Chalmers has just released a footwear range with the words ‘KING KYLE’ appearing on the side of the shoe, while a crown above Chalmers’ initials (KC) are on the back.
Of course, talkback host and Australian Idol judge Kyle Sandilands is commonly known as ‘King Kyle’, and no one can deny his status as the king of breakfast radio.
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But Sandilands has also revealed he actually owns the copyright for the ‘King Kyle’ moniker.
“He’s (Chalmers) brought out a shoe range with ‘King Kyle’ written on the side and my legal team are like, ‘you own the IP internationally, no one else can use that without you getting paid’,’’ Sandilands said.
“My quandary is, do I bombard this bloke with the legal letters, take all his medals, take his house, his car, shut this company down, like bulldoze the joint down, and then bring home a couple of metres of dirt as a trophy?
“Or do I just not worry about it?”
Chalmers is the first Aussie swimmer to release a running shoe and they acknowledge the Australian sporting colours of yellow and green.
Shoe company Athletikan is his manufacturing partner.
Sandilands was discussing the threat of legal action with his co-host Jackie ‘O’ Henderson on KIIS FM.
And Henderson seemed to be on the side of taking the matter further, while Sandilands was uncertain.
“I lean to not worry about it,’’ Sandilands said.
But Henderson said: “(To say) it’s just business, well that’s bulls***.
“You think right now it’ll blow over and it’ll be nothing, but what if it becomes this huge thing and you own that brand.
“You don’t want to be an a***hole about it.
“I think you should let them use the run they’ve done already (but) then say maybe you should look at a different name.
“Oh, I don’t know, Kyle, it’s a horrible situation to be in.”
Sandilands said if he created a shoe with Coca-Cola branding, that company would be “outraged”.
Chalmers announced the release of the shoe only yesterday on Instagram.
“I’m excited to announce I’ve teamed up with Athletikan to release my own signature sneakers!” he said.
“This limited release drops on February 21.
“The first 100 orders also come with a personally signed note from me!”