The outspoken Ratner has agreed to call his new online business GeraldOnline rather than RatnersOnline.
Signet maintained the use of the Ratner name would cause confusion in its marketplace.
That Ratner wanted to use his family name in the first place surprised many, after he described a 拢4.99 cut glass sherry decanter as "total crap" in 1991 and said Ratners' 拢1 gold earrings would not last as long as an Marks & Spencer prawn sandwich. He later said he had been joking.
His joke caused Ratners' share price to fall through the floor and eventually forced the group to change its name to Signet. Ratner himself was forced out of the company.
Ratner still believes his surname retains a certain pulling power. "We were going to call it something else," he said, "But thought it was more likely to get hits on the internet [as Ratners]... albeit for the wrong reasons."
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