Sumitomo Rubber Industries to Acquire Trademark Rights to “DUNLOP”

Sumitomo Rubber Industries (SRI), a global tire and sporting goods manufacturing company based in Japan and part of the Sumitomo Group, announced recently that it will acquire the trademark rights of "DUNLOP" from British retailing group Sports Direct International (SDI). SRI has agreed to pay $137.5 million (approximately \16.1 billion) for the trademark rights.
 
Prior to this acquisition, SRI was only licensed to use the DUNLOP trademark; however, following the acquisition, SRI will have the trademark rights to DUNLOP in over 86 countries worldwide including Thailand, Brazil and Indonesia.
 
Furthermore, as part of the acquisition, SRI will also receive the rights to the DUNLOP brand’s sporting goods business and licensing business, which will allow SRI to further expand into the sporting goods business in areas such as tennis equipment as well as allowing them to develop a licensing business related to clothing and shoes all over the world.