Nick Xenophon launches lawful action towards his previous regulation company in excess of continued use of letter X

Previous South Australian senator and lawyer Nick Xenophon has sued his previous regulation firm for however utilizing a “spinoff of his name” in its new business title even with him leaving the company past year.

Mr Xenophon filed a assertion of declare with the Federal Courtroom in March against XD Law and Advocacy Pty Ltd, formerly acknowledged as “Xenophon Davis Pty Ltd”.

The former senator is trying to find for the company title to be transformed by getting rid of the letter X, and that the respondents pay back his expenditures for the lawful proceedings.

The law company specialises in crime matters, advocacy and litigation in overseas jurisdictions, and has also presented illustration for substantial-profile whistleblowers such as David McBride, Troy Stolz and Sharon Kelsey.

In the assert, Mr Xenophon claimed he “is and has been referred to as Mr X in many media content articles, reviews and broadcasts linked to his authorized and/or political professions”.

A single instance he cited was a June 2023 headline from news outlet InDaily, which mentioned: “Mr X continue to on the menu for SA’s most voracious lobbyists.”

A different write-up cited by Mr Xenophon, from News Corp in 2018, referred to a “new system to be declared by SA Finest Chief Nick Xenophon” and was headlined “Mr X vows to remove the gag orders below new whistleblower coverage”.

Mr Xenophon was a senator for South Australia in between 2008 and 2017 but resigned from his Senate seat to mount an in the end unsuccessful bid to operate for SA parliament.

The legal document also alleged that the firm’s existing associates Mark Davis and Natalija Nikolic breached a deed that was composed up when Mr Xenophon left the firm, and that the organization is “engaging in conduct that is deceptive and deceptive”.

Mr Xenophon’s claim states the deed needed Mr Davis and Ms Nikolic to “stop applying the applicant’s title and any figuring out marks, symbols or visuals which connected their firm with [Mr Xenophon]”.

The previous senator reported that the “objectively implied intention” of the deed was that the two directors would cease employing any “derivative”, “variation” or “truncation of the applicant’s title”.

Mr Xenophon also argued in the doc that the business was participating in deceptive perform by utilizing “XD” in the business enterprise name because it was “implying a business association and affiliation” with him.

‘May be extra productive talking to Elon’

In a statement, Mr Davis — who is XD Regulation and Advocacy’s director — hit back again at the statements, indicating he completely “rejects Mr Xenophon’s apparent belief that he owns a letter of the alphabet”.

“We wished him nicely and because he remaining we have built no tries by any means to associate him with the firm,” Mr Davis explained.

“Indeed, we have not produced a single reference on any platform for more than 12 months.

“We dealt with his departure from the business amicably but we now have a small business to run.

Mr Xenophon declined to comment on the circumstance.