[ISL] "Iceland vs. Iceland: British food chain looks to thaw trademark feud"
The Globe and Mail carried James Davey's Reuters report noting the conflict between the country of Iceland and the British-based food retailer of the same name. I have to admit to being surprised, still, that the name of a country could have been so appropriated by an unrelated business.
British supermarket chain Iceland Foods is sending a delegation to “The Land of Fire and Ice” in an effort to resolve a legal dispute over the trademark registration of the word “Iceland”.
Iceland Foods, whose 22,000 employees would be equivalent to almost 7 per cent of Iceland the country’s population, said it was urgently seeking a meeting after the north Atlantic island said last week it had taken legal action against the retailer.
Reykjavik said Iceland Food’s Europe-wide registration had often left Icelandic firms unable to describe their products as Icelandic and it had asked the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EU-IPO) to invalidate it.
Iceland Foods said on Tuesday it wanted “to lay out constructive proposals for resumption of the peaceful co-existence between the company and country that had prevailed for the previous 46 years.”
The supermarket, which is best known for its frozen foods, said it had a long history of friendly relations with Iceland, which lies about 800 km (500 miles) northwest of Scotland and has a population of 329,100.
British supermarket chain Iceland Foods is sending a delegation to “The Land of Fire and Ice” in an effort to resolve a legal dispute over the trademark registration of the word “Iceland”.
Iceland Foods, whose 22,000 employees would be equivalent to almost 7 per cent of Iceland the country’s population, said it was urgently seeking a meeting after the north Atlantic island said last week it had taken legal action against the retailer.
Reykjavik said Iceland Food’s Europe-wide registration had often left Icelandic firms unable to describe their products as Icelandic and it had asked the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EU-IPO) to invalidate it.
Iceland Foods said on Tuesday it wanted “to lay out constructive proposals for resumption of the peaceful co-existence between the company and country that had prevailed for the previous 46 years.”
The supermarket, which is best known for its frozen foods, said it had a long history of friendly relations with Iceland, which lies about 800 km (500 miles) northwest of Scotland and has a population of 329,100.