Comedian only joking about price

Cartoon: Rod Clement.

The local paper recently speculated comedian Merrick Watts would get $5m-plus when his inner-west Sydney warehouse was initially scheduled for auction.

So the prospective buyers turning up at the open for inspections were surprised to be told $7m was the actual price expectation.

Merrick Watts has sold his award-winning home. Picture: Darren Leigh Roberts

Then there was almost (non-comic) relief when the guide was adjusted down to $6m-plus.

It has now been snapped up ahead of next Saturday’s scheduled auction, with the buyer introduced by local agent Ben Southwell at Cobden & Hayson.

The 1920s Lilyfield space had been a warehouse for the Oh Boy Candy Company nearly a century ago.

Watts, best remembered from the comedy duo Merrick and Rosso, paid $2.1m in 2008 for the two-storey showroom with sawtooth roofing. He commissioned architect Virginia Kerridge to turn the 900sq m warehouse into a family home for himself, his now wife Georgie and their two kids. Following its 2012 completion, the home won two RAIA Awards.

The Phillips Pantzer Donnelley listing agent Alexander Phillips had advised buyers it was offered with a short-term lease-back.

Watts’ former longtime JJJ-Nova radio partner, Tim Rosso, is a 60s architectural fanatic, not too far away in Hunters Hill.

He’s presenting a live show Designing a Legacy, which includes cinematic clippings that look at why architecture matters. The national tour started with a sellout at the Sydney Opera House last Friday.

Pyrrhic victory

The summer break saw no ceasefire in the legal battle between duelling fashionistas over the use of the name Delphine on their swimwear lines.

The Federal Court trademark battle saw a judgment late last year, which has been appealed.

The 36,000 word judgment by judge Bernard Murphy in Pinnacle Runway Pty Ltd vs Triangl Limited was Margin Call’s best summer read.

His honour concluded he’d just presided over “ill–advised proceedings”.

“And there is no clear winner,” he added.

The applicant and cross-respondent, Fabian Daniel Bucoy’s Pinnacle Runway, alleged but failed to firmly establish that Craig Ellis’s Triangl infringed its registered trademark.

Ellis is the online swimwear mogul who played for the AFL teams Western Bulldogs and Melbourne and co-founded the company with ex-partner Erin Deering. For a time the duo were based in Monaco, with Deering now spending more time in New York.

“Even if Pinnacle had been successful, its damages entitlements were not worth the powder and shot,” Justice Murphy suggested.

Bucky, who launched the Delphine label in 2015, has appealed the judgment, with newbie judge Paul Anastassio overseeing the case management last month.

The period of infringement was just six weeks in winter 2016, with the alleged infringing ceasing within three weeks of Pinnacle’s letter of demand.

The total revenue Triangl made was less than $40,000, and Pinnacle was unable to establish it had lost any sales.

Indeed, Pinnacle’s sales of the swimwear products totalled only $366 in the six-month period.

His honour noted Pinnacle was a young brand, so any entitlement to damages for diminution of reputation were de minimus.

“Pinnacle spent many times more in legal costs in bringing the claim than it could ever have reasonably hoped to recover by way of damages,” Justice Murphy noted.

“This unfortunate litigation involved substantial expenditure of the parties’ and court resources and, for reasons which are unclear, the parties were unable to reach a commercial settlement.”

Triangl argued it only used Delphine as a “style name”.

Triangl relied on Gary Saunders, a marketing expert, and Fabien Lalande, a trademark practitioner with Corrs Chambers Westgarth. Neil Murray SC and Frances St John, who represented Triangl, are giving an Intellectual Property Society of Australia and New Zealand lecture today on their win with light-lunching lawyers earning some CPD points.

Pinnacle relied upon Dr Stephen Downes, a branding expert, represented by Scott Stuckey QC and Andrew Sykes instructed by Actuate Legal.

The court heard Triangl’s bikini sales actually increased once the name was changed to Delilah, which Pinnacle complained demonstrated a continuing disregard for its rights because Delilah was a similar name.

Of course Pinnacle was not the first trader to use Delphine as a trade mark.

There was the exclusive outlet on Burke Rd Camberwell where Margin Call’s grandmother would buy frocks for the races.

Arty exodus

Construction heir Andrew Roberts’ departure to London has prompted his exit from the Art Gallery of New South Wales board of trustees.

It’s a shame because his construction expertise from his days at Multiplex would have no doubt helped the board’s oversight of the gallery’s $344m extension into The Domain.

The project, dubbed the Sydney Modern Project, is the largest public-private partnership of its kind in the arts in Australia.

Samantha Meers, the chair of the Brett Whiteley Foundation, was another to depart the board of trustees over the summer break, leaving the board after nine years.

Arts Minister Don Harwin secured the continuation of billionaire philanthropist Gretel Packer and former Festival of Sydney board member Ashley Dawson-Damer.

Harwin made the appointments before his summer break presumed to be at his recently acquired weekender in Pearl Beach, the Central Coast’s only known cultural hub.

Artist Khadim Ali was replaced by artist Tony Albert.

Board president David Gonski also welcomed businessman Andrew Cameron, a longstanding art collector, who donated to the Sydney Modern Project. The Ramecon founder gave over $1m. Cameron’s wife Cathy is a volunteer guide at the gallery.

Big Issue promo

Some kind-hearted CEOs hit the pavement last week to sell The Big Issue, but before the big wet hit.

The Big Issue, which has been published about 600 times since first hitting the high streets in 1996, is traditionally sold by the unemployed seeking extra income.

The business executives donning the luminous green hi-vis vests included PEXA boss Glenn King on Collins Square, the PwC CEO Luke Sayers, MLC boss Geoff Lloyd and David Lindberg, Westpac’s chief executive of consumer banking, who was on the streets of Sydney again. Swans CEO Tom Harley was in Surry Hills.

REA Group CEO Owen Wilson was selling on Church Street, Richmond.

Elsabe Muller, asset president at BHP Mitsui Coal, sold her copies on Adelaide’s Queen Street.

Over in Perth there was a big turnout of Fortescue executives including Ian Wells, Linda O’Farrell, Zara Fisher, and Greg Lileyman, its COO.

Anna Bligh from the Australian Bankers Association joined more than 70 CEOs and leaders across Australia to raise awareness for the 9000+ regular street vendors around the world.

Costing $9, the latest issue has Shane Warne on the cover.