The never-ending legal battles of former tyre king Bob Jane with his estranged son have delayed the planned float of the prominent businessman’s new insurance company.
Jane, who remains legally prohibited to use his name to set up new businesses, is rebranding the Bob Jane Integrity Insurance that he set up with smash repair businessman Tony Murdaca.
The company has been renamed Integrity Insurance Australia where the two businessmen will sit on an advisory committee, the
Australian Financial Review reported.
“We've put the name aside now, bearing in mind, Mr Jane only wanted to be an investor in this brand, he wanted to give us some advice. We can't [float or run the business] at the moment, and it's now called Integrity Insurance Australia," the report quoted Murdaca as saying.
"Bob's an investor of the company, endorsing what we're doing, and he's not a director at this stage. He'll probably come to the advisory board once we resolve [this]," Murdaca added.
Rodney Jane, Bob Jane's estranged son and chief executive of Bob Jane T-Mart, previously won a court order banning the former race car driver from trading in his own name. The businessman was fined in 2014 for breaching the order.
"It's pretty simple. We own the trademark and he's trying to use it. It's the same thing yet again," the younger Jane said of his father and his insurance company.
"Maybe he's [Bob] doing it for fun, maybe it's for real, I don't know ... but he knows how to play the trademark game."
Unfazed by the setback, the former tyre king said he would continue fighting for the right to use his name.
"We have to act to get rid of the [court] order," he said. "I'm only an investor of the company. The company has been set up by other people and they're being attacked by Rodney Bruce Jane about using the name."
In September 2015,
Jane and Murdaca said they would list Bob Jane Integrity Insurance by December having bought a shell company on the ASX. The new insurer will reportedly start in motor and will offer commercial policies.
