Pinkberry serves lawsuits to six frozen yogurt shops - 4 views

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  #1 Reseena Abdullah on 25 Aug 09

   

  http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-pinkberry12-2008sep12,0,2520279.story
  
  The article is about an American frozen yogurt chain that is suing other 'copycat' businesses. One such chain was even changed the appearance of its physical store after being accused of infringement. In addition to this, similar rival chains in other parts of the world have also been served with cease-and-desist letters.
  
  
  I think that this is a rather interesting case and is quite similar to the case in which Starbucks sued China-based coffee chain Xingbake over trademark infringement. I believe that in this instance, Pinkberry has the right to sue the imitators especially because some of them were alleged to have copied its "highly distinctive branding". IP rights are designed to protect copyright owners and give them an incentive to continue to innovate. Pinkberry had probably invested a lot of time and money into creating and marketing its yogurt and it would be unethical for other businesses to leech off of them.
  
  However, there is also some ambiguity in dealing with such scenarios. As mentioned by an intellectual property professor in the article, businesses have the right to sue its rivals if the latter has created some confusion with the original product. In this way, it would mean that companies have to first prove that the rivals have indeed copied them and that there are potential losses in terms of revenue and reputation before drawing up a lawsuit. But doing this may be quite tricky in itself because it could be difficult in some cases to show clearly that there has been confusion over the brand.

   

  <div class="cArrow"> </div><div class="cContentInner"><a href="http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-pinkberry12-2008sep12,0,2520279.story" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-pinkberry12-2008sep12,0,2520279.story</a> <br /> <br /> The article is about an American frozen yogurt chain that is suing other 'copycat' businesses. One such chain was even changed the appearance of its physical store after being accused of infringement. In addition to this, similar rival chains in other parts of the world have also been served with cease-and-desist letters. <br /> <br /> <br /> I think that this is a rather interesting case and is quite similar to the case in which Starbucks sued China-based coffee chain Xingbake over trademark infringement. I believe that in this instance, Pinkberry has the right to sue the imitators especially because some of them were alleged to have copied its "highly distinctive branding". IP rights are designed to protect copyright owners and give them an incentive to continue to innovate. Pinkberry had probably invested a lot of time and money into creating and marketing its yogurt and it would be unethical for other businesses to leech off of them. <br /> <br /> However, there is also some ambiguity in dealing with such scenarios. As mentioned by an intellectual property professor in the article, businesses have the right to sue its rivals if the latter has created some confusion with the original product. In this way, it would mean that companies have to first prove that the rivals have indeed copied them and that there are potential losses in terms of revenue and reputation before drawing up a lawsuit. But doing this may be quite tricky in itself because it could be difficult in some cases to show clearly that there has been confusion over the brand.</div>

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