Storm in a teapot

19 December 2008

Storm in a teapot

By Corinne Day

A trade mark dispute has broken out between the owner of a teashop in surrey, The Tea Box in Richmond, and a giant German tea manufacturer, Teekanne, a Dusseldorf-based company.

Owner of the surrey tea shop, Jemma Swallow, choose a simple brand for her teashop, a teapot. However, she now faces a legal battle with a giant German tea manufacturer after applying to register the mark as a UK registered trade mark in classes 30 and 43 for coffee, tea and related products and for cafe services.

Her simple, hand-painted design of a round teapot with a black background, featuring the words 'The Tea Box', has caused such a storm with Teekanne that they have lodged an official objection with the UK Intellectual Property Office. Teekanne argues that the trade mark is confusingly similar to their logo of a teapot with a red background, which was registered in Europe in 2004 in classes 5, 16, 30, 35 and 43. The disputed tea pot can be viewed on the UK IPO's website, trade mark number 2463936. The Teekanne mark can also be viewed on the UK IPO's website, trade mark number E3038163. It appears to me that the two marks are not confusingly similar, however, because of the subjective nature of trade mark law, it is impossible to predict whether the UK Intellectual Property Office will uphold the opposition. It has been reported that the logo was designed as an optical illusion to illustrate both a teapot viewed from the side and a teacup viewed from above with a teaspoon and sugar cube by its side and a swirl of green tea within.

It has also been reported that Jemma Swallow, along with her partner, Mike de Souza, are determined to fight against the opposition, but are worried about the cost of doing so.

Teekane reportedly makes 6 billion tea bags a year but its products are not well known in Britain. Its logo has a European Community trademark, which protects it in all 27 member states, including the UK.

Mr De Souza said: "We're not after global domination. We're just a little tea shop. But should our tea continue as a success we want to be able to brand what we sell."

"We feel like we're being bullied by a massive company. What they want is to have the sole use of the teapot logo trademark in Europe, which we think is bonkers. How can you trademark a teapot?"

Corinne Day is a trainee solicitor who specialises in information technology law and intellectual property law. She can be contacted via e-mail on corinne.day@lawdit.co.uk