Treliske v Trelise the battle begins
February 3rd, 2008, 4:19 pm Hobbies News
Central Otago organic farm Treliske claims the designers %26quot;Trelise%26quot; line is too similar to its trademark.
The Roxburgh farm produces certified organic wool and knitwear for export around the world.
Treliske director Jackie Aitchison said her company was not making a personal attack on the clothes designer.
%26quot;We have no axe to grind with Trelise Cooper,%26quot; Ms Aitchison said.
%26quot;We just want our intellectual property rights recognised. Our issue is with IPONZ (the Intellectual Property Organisation of New Zealand). We registered our name as a trademark in both New Zealand and the United States at a large cost to protect our business and that hasnt happened.%26quot;
Ms Aitchision said she registered Treliske as a trademark 15 years ago and built her business around it. Meaning %26quot;place of trees%26quot;, it has been the name of the family farm since 1946.
%26quot;We had no problem with the Trelise Cooper trademark, which she registered in 2000,%26quot; Ms Aitchison said. %26quot;But we were quite shocked to discover that IPONZ had allowed Trelise to be registered in 2006. We were never notified. Names that are similar enough to cause confusion are not supposed to be registered. If you liken it to Coca-Cola, theres no way that you could register Cola as a trademark. This is just one letter, not even a whole word.%26quot;
IPONZ had refused to rectify the situation, Ms Aitchison said, so her company had filed for invalidity of the Trelise trademark.
Trelise Cooper has contested that so now the onus is on the Central Otago farm to prove that it will affect its business. The file is being handled by patent lawyers but may yet end up in the courts.
Ms Aitchison said she was concerned other small businesses could find themselves in this situation.
%26quot;It worries me that other businesses could lose money by paying to create trademarks and then not have the rights over their intellectual property in the way they expect to.%26quot;
In a statement, Trelise Cooper general manager Alex Brandon said the company was building a global brand, including the Trelise brand name, that sold in 14 countries and more than 250 stores worldwide.
%26quot;The bigger and more successful a brand becomes, the more likely it is to have imitators in the marketplace,%26quot; Mr Brandon said.
%26quot;To suggest that at this stage in our development we would be seeking to ride on the coat-tails of an unrelated business or cause any confusion is incorrect.%26quot;
Mr Brandon said the company was satisfied it had correctly followed all appropriate protocols in registering and protecting its brand.
Cooper reached an amicable settlement after a wrangle with Arrowtown accessories designer Tamsin Cooper last July. Trelise Cooper had objected to the designer registering her name as a trademark, claiming that customers would not be able to differentiate between the two brands. After a 20-month legal battle, the case was settled with both women continuing to trade under their birth names.
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