Iceland vs Iceland Trademark Spat More Clear: Iceland Foods Opposed Iceland's Trademark Application

from the ice-ice-baby dept

We recently wrote about the strange situation going on between a British company, Iceland Foods, and the nation of Iceland. What was clear was that this spat was over the trademark on the word "Iceland" held by the grocer, which had been ridiculously granted to cover all of Europe by the EU. Iceland had initiated a petition to have that trademark revoked, prompting the company to send a delegation to Reykjavik in an attempt to work something out that would allow the company to retain its control of a trademark consisting of the name of a member of the European Economic Area. It seems that this meeting did not go as well as Iceland Foods had hoped.

"[The talks] got nowhere because it rapidly became clear that the Icelandic authorities have no interest in reaching a compromise," said founder and chief executive Malcolm Walker. "We have no real idea why this has suddenly become such a major problem for Iceland (the country)."

Which isn't exactly true, as almost in the same breath the company has acknowledged that it attempted to block an extremely benign trademark registration by the goverment of Iceland. The country had registered "Inspired by Iceland" as a trademark, only to have it blocked by Iceland Foods. The company claims it wasn't aware that Iceland's government had been behind the application it blocked, which is both difficult to believe and entirely besides the point.

That point being that the trademark the company holds is absurd in the first place, both because it is overly broad as well as consisting entirely of the name of a geographic location. And the negotiations between the company and the country, in which the company attempted to paint Iceland's government as unwilling to compromise, apparently saw Iceland Foods unwilling to budge.

On Friday, Iceland's foreign ministry said the company refused to relinquish exclusive control of the word Iceland and that it would therefore pursue legal action to invalidate the company's trademark.

"The registration of a country name that enjoys highly positive national branding to a private company defies logic and is untenable," the ministry said.

It's hard to imagine how the trademark survives Iceland's petition. Iceland Foods still says it hopes it can reach an agreement with the country, though why the country would want to negotiate at all is entirely beyond me.

Filed Under: iceland, trademark, trademark bully
Companies: iceland

Who Gets To Trademark Iceland?

from the ice-ice-baby dept

When you cover enough trademark disputes, you come to expect a fairly typical pattern to them. Entity X bullies entity Y over a vaguely similar use of a mark that often times is overly broad or generic, and then there is either a capitulation to the bullying, a settlement, or the rare instance of a trial that results in an actual ruling. The outcomes aren't typically favorable for those of us that think trademark law has been pushed beyond its original intent, but the pattern persists.

But every once in a while, you find a zebra amidst the thundering hooves of horses. Such is the case with a very strange dispute currently going on between Iceland Foods, a foodstuffs retailer, and Iceland, the island nation between Greenland and the rest of Europe. Due to the retailer's aggressive protection of its trademark, which consists of a generic term preceeded by the name of a country, Iceland has petitioned to revoke the trademark Iceland Foods has on its name for all of Europe.

Iceland is challenging Iceland Foods’ exclusive ownership of the European-wide trademark registration for the word Iceland, which it says is preventing the country’s companies from promoting goods and services abroad.

The Icelandic government claims the supermarket has “aggressively pursued” and won multiple cases against companies that use the word Iceland as part of its trademark, “even in cases when the products and services do not compete”.

If true, it makes sense for the government of Iceland to protect the interests of its citizens from such bullying. The larger point of this, however, is that the absurdity of granting a trademark, for all of Europe no less, to a single company on the name of a country forces a dispute where there should not be one. While we could spend time analyzing if Iceland Foods is being too aggressive in its trademark protectionism, or whether the Icelandic government is trying to bully the retailer back with threats over the trademark being removed, we should instead just spend our time trying to figure out who approved this trademark in the first place and then fire that person.

But overly broad or generic trademarks don't qualify as zebra stripes in a trademark story. Having a trademark holder send a delegation to a national government to try to work something out, however, probably does.

The supermarket’s founder and chief executive, Malcolm Walker, said on Tuesday: “A high-level delegation from Iceland [Foods] is preparing to fly to Reykjavik this week to begin negotiations, and we very much hope for a positive response and an early resolution of this issue.”

The retailer’s company secretary and legal director, Duncan Vaughan, will be leading the delegation in the next few days, but it will not include Walker.

Walker said: “We registered Iceland as our company name in 1970 and we have coexisted with the country called Iceland very happily ever since. They have made no contact with us to raise any concerns about trademark issues since 2012. We have no desire whatsoever to stand in the way of Iceland the country making use of their own name to promote their own products, so long as it does not conflict or cause confusion with our own business. I am sure there is ample scope for an agreement that will allow both parties to continue to live and work amicably alongside each other.”

If that all seems quite congenial, it's likely because the retailer knows how ridiculous it is that it has this trademark to begin with. The ridiculous scenario in which a food company sends emmissaries to a national government to negotiate the continued monopolistic use of that nation's name is fully brought to you by a European Union IP Office in need of a severe attitude correction.

Filed Under: geographical names, iceland, trademark, uk
Companies: iceland