Court of Appeals Reverses Injunction Against Polo Magazine.

Business Editors/Legal Writers

HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 27, 2000

Westchester Media, the publisher of Polo Magazine, won reversal of a trial court's ruling forbidding it from using the name "Polo" for its magazine. In August 1999, a magistrate judge in Houston issued an injunction at the request of Polo Ralph Lauren ("PRL") Corporation prohibiting Westchester from publishing its magazine under the name "Polo." The Fifth Circuit issued a stay of that injunction in August 1999 while considering the appeal.

In its opinion, issued on June 27, 2000, the Fifth Circuit remanded the case to the trial court because it erred in giving too little weight to Westchester's First Amendment interests in publishing a magazine about the sport of polo. In reaching its decision, the Court made the following observation:

PRL products became famous by basking in the reflected glow

of an elegant sport. PRL now asserts that it, not the sport,

is the source of the glow. While PRL's primary claim is the

essence of the ordinary trademark case, we cannot be blind,

when balancing the equities, to the fact that PRL is

arrogating the very name of a sport from the players'

publication. In a sense, PRL is biting the hand that fed it.

Westchester is pleased to have its First Amendment rights vindicated on appeal.