The SportEx conference was scheduled to take place in London between October 14-16 but has now been cancelled after the publishers of a sports medicine magazine claimed to own the rights to the SportEx trademark.
A statement from the SportEx organisers read: "A company in London have registered the trademark 'SportEx' in 2001, under class 16 & 41 (conferences, seminars and publishing). They basically publish a sports medicine magazine and occasionally organise conferences on health and medicine in sport.
"We are organising a trade fair, not a conference, for sports and leisure equipment, which is obviously totally different from their products and services.
"Their solicitors are insisting we have infringed their trade mark rights, and are not only seeking compensation and damages from us, and threatening legal action, but have indicated we stop using the SportEx name with immediate effect, cease supplying any services by reference to the SportEx name, hand over to them all our printed literature, and to take down our website.
"Although we, and our solicitors, feel their infringement allegations are groundless, we would not relish the costs and distraction of a legal dispute at this stage, and as such we have had to settle this matter by agreeing to release the name SportEx 2003.
"Any change of name at this late stage would cause so much confusion and complications, that the decision has been taken to regrettably cancel the exhibition forthwith.
"We will continue in earnest to find another solution, but the likelihood is that any name change and subsequent postponement will cause irreparable damage and mistrust."
A dispute over trademark infringement has led to the cancellation of the sports and leisure equipment conference SportEx 2003.
