Branson wins UK ruling over abandoned US rail naming

Billionaire Richard Branson’s Virgin Enterprises Ltd. won a UK court ruling over brand rights on US trains worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Virgin Enterprise is seeking about $250 million after Brightline Holdings abandoned its 20-year deal to use the Virgin brand less than two years after signing it. Brightline terminated the agreement in 2020 alleging the Virgin brand “repelled customers, investors and employees” from its rail business. “Brightline has failed to prove that the brand had ceased to be a brand of international high repute,” Judge Mark Pelling said in the ruling published Thursday. “Although it was suggested by Brightline that its standing with consumers was damaged by its continued association with Virgin, there is no evidence that is so.”