CORONA DEL MAR, CALIFORNIA – November 26, 2025 – Privately held, Corona del Mar based Miramar Brands Group, Inc. (“MIRAMAR”) today announced a decisive validation of its core intellectual property, confirming the unauthorized and infringing nature of the rag & bone/ MIRAMAR mark used by Rag & Bone LLC and RB Topco Sagl.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued a Nonfinal Office Action on October 30, 2025, delivering a sweeping Section 2(d) Refusal against RB Topco’s application (Serial No. 99224195) for RAG & BONE / MIRAMAR (for retail store services), citing an undeniable likelihood of confusion with MIRAMAR’s incontestable, registered trademarks.

“Trademark Act Section 2(d) bars registration of an applied-for mark that is so similar to a registered mark that it is likely consumers would be confused, mistaken, or deceived as to the commercial source of the goods and/or services of the parties.” – USPTO

The USPTO action explicitly cited multiple registered MIRAMAR marks, underscoring that the two brands’ goods and services (all in the apparel and retail space) are highly related, and that the incorporation of the entire MIRAMAR mark into RAG & BONE / MIRAMAR does not mitigate consumer confusion. Registration of RB Topco’s applied-for mark was “refused because of a likelihood of confusion with” MIRAMAR’s marks.

“In the present case, the applicant’s addition of the wording, RAG & BONE, to the registrant’s mark, MIRAMAR, does not obviate the likelihood of confusion as the additional wording does not alter the overall commercial impression between the marks. Thus, the marks are identical in part.” – USPTO

This ruling directly impacts Rag & Bone LLC and  RB TopCo, SAGL, the Swiss entity formed in 2024 that holds the Rag & Bone intellectual property transferred in a sale and assignment in April of 2024 according to the USPTO filings.  The Rag & Bone trademarks are in a co-owned partnership between entities related to Guess?, Inc. and WHP Global.

“We started humbly on Miramar Beach in 1983 by making great products for our American Riviera Brands.  This is a complete and unambiguous rejection of Rag & Bone’s claim to the MIRAMAR mark,” said Stephen Ascher Jr., CEO of Miramar Brands Group, Inc. “The USPTO’s ruling is clear: consumers are confused, and this use is an infringement of our famous brand. MIRAMAR has stayed in its lane yet vigorously defended its trademarks for decades—from our early days in 1991 at Miramar Beach to Miramar’s Sideout brand fighting global giants—and we will not permit a brand with our hard-earned heritage to be diluted. The time for discussion is over. Dilutive press statements in major publications  like ’There’s this next generation that is learning about Rag & Bone through Miramar’ in the “September 5, 2025 WWD article entitled ‘Rag & Bone’s Denim Mimicking Miramar Collection Raises It’s Retail Profile’ and statements in the article like ‘Miramar like you’ve never seen it before’ and ‘I believe 45 percent of our women’s new customer acquisition is from Miramar’ are opportunistic and disrespectful to our proud brand heritage.  Despite a MIRAMAR Cease & Desist served on RB Topco and Rag & Bone on August 28, 2025, the parties still keep going despite the brutal October 30, 2025, USPTO ruling, fomenting confusion further and creating unlimited liability.  They must stop.  We have now moved beyond letters to take aggressive, direct action and have begun putting all infringing parties involved on 48-hour notice, including retail partners that are unknowingly distributing infringing goods that must be removed from all channels of distribution.”

Olympian and volleyball legend Christopher St. John “Sinjin” Smith added: “I’ve been aligned with Stephen Ascher, fashion, sports, volleyball and MIRAMAR since the early 1980’s.  I know how much equity, recognition and fame MIRAMAR has built globally. When I saw Rag & Bone’s ‘MIRAMAR’ marketing, my wife and I both assumed the MIRAMAR brand had partnered with them. It was shocking to learn no such agreement existed. In all my years — including the Olympics, five World Championships, and global advertising campaigns, most recently with Levi Strauss for its 501 150^th Campaign — I’ve never seen such a direct attempt to hijack another brand’s identity. What Rag & Bone has done is deceiving to the consumer and an exploitation of MIRAMAR’s fame, hard earned on and off the court over forty years. The USPTO ruling is clear, it appears that ‘registrant (MIRAMAR) has begun offering similar goods and services under another iteration of its registered mark’.  In our industry, we call this a ‘collaboration’, where one party licenses and pays for the fame of another, and no such agreement ever occurred.  Even Rag & Bone’s attorney calls the rag & bone/MIRAMAR line a “lock-up’...a full admission that this is a collaboration – we know this well from our famous 18 year partnership with Berkshire Hathaway and its Spalding, Fruit of the Loom and Russell Brands Divisions and our current AAU partnership.  The USPTO made the right call with its sweeping ruling.”

Key Takeaways from the USPTO Ruling:

• Likelihood of Confusion Affirmed: The USPTO held the marks are “highly similar,” explicitly noting that the addition of “RAG & BONE” does not obviate the likelihood of confusion, as the dominant portion of both marks remains MIRAMAR.
• “In this case, both marks share the similar wording, MIRAMAR. This similarity creates a confusingly similar commercial impression because consumers are likely to believe that registrant’s mark is a condensed form of applicant’s mark or that registrant has begun offering similar goods and services under another iteration of its registered mark. Thus, the addition of wording does not create a distinct commercial impression that distinguishes applicant’s mark from registrant’s mark. Therefore, the marks are confusingly similar.” – USPTO
• Direct Retail Conflict: The ruling confirmed that the clothing goods (Class 25) covered by MIRAMAR’s registrations, and the retail services (Class 35) covered by RB TopCo’s application are “highly related” and “likely to be encountered together in the marketplace,” providing the legal foundation for retail enforcement.
• “The marks create the same commercial impression and the attached evidence illustrates that the goods and services are commercially related and are likely to be encountered together in the marketplace by consumers. Accordingly, consumers are likely to be confused and mistakenly believe that the products and services originate from a common source. Therefore, registration must be refused. Trademark Act Section 2(d), 15 U.S.C. § 1052(d); see TMEP §§ 1207.01 et seq.” – USPTO
• Incontestable Rights: The refusal affirms the superior and incontestable rights of MIRAMAR’s existing registrations.

MIRAMAR demands that the parties immediately remove, discontinue and destroy all MIRAMAR-labeled products by Rag & Bone and its retail partners. MIRAMAR is now actively escalating enforcement in global Brand Registries online and offline, and now at the Customs and Border Patrol to protect its intellectual property and prevent further confusion and dilution of its brand in the marketplace.

About Miramar Brands Group, Inc.

Miramar Brands Group, Inc. is the owner of the registered MIRAMAR trademark and its famous associated “Crown Marks”: Queen & King of the Beach®, Queen & King of the Court®, and Queen & King of the Snow® across event, fashion, sports, apparel, and retail categories. The company has a powerful global televised reach to over 100 million households and 120 countries through Queen & King of the Court® Crown Series (“QKOTC“) Events licensed to Dutch sports giant Sportworx BV in partnership with the FIVB.   The Queen & King of the Court® Crown Series Event will be featured on global television this Friday and Saturday from the Crystal Palace in London.  Legend Sinjin Smith will be on hand with partner and MIRAMAR founder Stephen Yount Ascher, Jr. to root on Hagen Smith and Logan Webber from the USA as they defend their 2024 victory and title as the FIRST ever American Kings of England.  MIRAMAR celebrates its 100-year involvement on March 3, 2026 with its global Queen & King of the Beach® National Championship Series with the Amateur Athletic Union of the United States (“AAU”).  The AAU is the largest organized sports body in the US. MIRAMAR and its founders have a 100-year history with the AAU and a 45-year history of global brand management and licensing developing some of the moist powerful consumer brands in the world.  MIRAMAR’s deep portfolio of trademarks and powerful partnerships, past and present, include Hearst Corporation, ESPN, The Olympic Channel, ELLE International, the ELLE and ELLE Decor fashion brands, divisions of the Lagardère Group and Vivendi, Li & Fung, Authentic Lifestyles, Amsterdam based Sportworx, BV, Berkshire Hathaway’s Fruit of the Loom, Spalding and Russell Brands Divisions, Hang Ten®, Lightning Bolt®, Mossimo, Tony Hawk, Celebrity Chef Todd English and many others in the fashion, lifestyle, event, food and sports categories.

Contact:

Wendy Allen, EVP, Communications

MIRAMAR BRANDS GROUP, INC.

wendy@miramarbrands.com

press@miramarbrands.com

(626) 993-8000