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Boy London: Anglofranchise Ltd wins court case, becomes brand’s sole owner in Italy
London-based company Anglofranchise Ltd has announced it won a legal battle that lasted almost 10 years, the lawsuit relating to the ownership of the Boy London brand in Italy. Following the signing of a settlement agreement, Anglofranchise Ltd now owns all rights to the brands and/or registered trademarks bearing the names ‘Boy’, ‘Boy London’ and/or the distinctive eagle design.
Moreover, the court ruled that, as of September 1 2022, the Puglia-based entities that had relaunched Boy London in Italy will cease producing and marketing any and all Boy London products. As a result of the agreement, Anglofranchise Ltd is to all intents and purposes the sole proprietor of the trademark rights to Boy London in Italy.
Boy London was founded by Stephane Raynor in 1976. As one of the aesthetic linchpins of a nouvelle vague both in fashion and music, it anticipated the style codes of the Punk and New Romantic movements through the Boy shop on Kings Road in London, among whose first cashiers was a youthful Billy Idol. Prior to creating the Boy label, Raynor used to sell 1950s clothes to Malcolm McLaren at his Let it Rock shop, before opening the legendary Acme Attractions store. Boy enjoyed genuine popular success from the early 1980s, when it was worn by the likes of Madonna, Boy George, Andy Warhol and many of the ‘it’ punk rockers of the period.
The label then became a must at Ibiza clubs, where its popularity continued into the 1990s. However, from the mid-1980s, Boy gradually began to implode, a victim of his own runaway success. In the 1990s, the label remained a presence in vintage stores, its name spread by word of mouth by fans and aficionados. Then, in 2007, rumours of a relaunch began to circulate, and were realised when Raynor opened a new store called Sick on Redchurch Street, in the heart of East London, where Boy found a new lease of life.
Boy London is currently distributed via over 100 multi-brand retailers worldwide, as well as more than 200 monobrand stores in Asia. Anglofranchise Ltd is now aiming to fully relaunch Boy London in Italy.
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