On Thursday, the Arab golf competition reached a multi-million out-of-court settlement, formalised at the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida, to settle a trademark infringement claim brought by the American company Stinger Golf.
These are not good times for LIV Golf. In the very same week that it learnt that a tripartite alliance signed between the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour and the Asian Tour had turned its back on it, a few days later it settled a dispute in which $100 million (€88m) in damages had initially been claimed and in which it ended up paying $1 million (€880,000). The payment was made exclusively by LIV Golf’s central organisation for the unauthorised use of the name ‘Stinger’ for one of the Saudi league’s original teams and its official merchandise, in disregard of the existing registered trademarks held by the Ohio-based company.
Stinger Golf’s lawyer, Brian Barakat, a partner at Barakat + Bossa, delivered a scathing assessment in remarks reported by outlets including Front Office Sports.
“We know that they, LIV Golf, were aware of our registered trademark long before they created the Stinger Golf Club team, and they simply decided that they did not care,” he said. “Obviously, $1 million does not account for the full extent of the damage suffered by our client,” Barakat concluded, referring to the dispute between the two companies.
Stinger Golf’s legal team acknowledged that it had accepted barely one per cent of the sum originally sought because of mounting fears that LIV Golf could file for bankruptcy. Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund recently confirmed that it will cease directly financing the circuit after the conclusion of the 2026 season.
In April, LIV Golf appointed veteran corporate restructuring executives Gene Davis and Jon Zinman, while also bringing in specialist advisory firms with extensive experience in insolvency proceedings, including AlixPartners and Ducera Partners.
