New Zealand: Chinese company tries to register Cookie Time logo
27 August 2012
New Zealand’s Cookie Time is going into battle against a Chinese company trying to register its Cookie Time Logo using identical artwork, according to a statement from the company’s lawyers at James & Wells.
Cookie Time Limited (CTL) late last year filed an opposition to the application by Qingdao Chengze Trade Co to register the Cookie Time logo in China. However, it has now been advised that it may take up to two years to hear the case. The Chinese company’s application to the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) uses identical artwork to the stylized Cookie Time logo.
The Chinese application is also blocking CTL’s own attempts to trademark its brand in China, on the back of the company’s focus on international licensing opportunities. CTL is in major growth mode, counter-cyclical to market conditions, and is actively exploring licensing opportunities for its One Square Meal brand in a number of markets.
While trademarks and patents for CTL brands are already in place in Australia, Canada, Japan, the United States and the European Union, CTL is in the process of registering its brands in a number of additional markets, including China. Until the Qingdao application is resolved, however, CTL’s trademark application for the Cookie Time brand in this market cannot be actioned, James & Wells lawyers say.
Lincoln Booth, CTL general manager, says the company is taking a hard line in defending its intellectual property, and the two-year delay on hearing the case in China is a serious concern, especially given Apple’s current issues over the iPad trademark in China. A Chinese company is seeking a ban on iPad imports and exports.
“The iPad issue in China definitely raises major flags for us,” Booth says. “We’ve got some big growth plans and opportunities in play, and we will not tolerate other companies attempting to cash in our own brand equity or steal a march on us in offshore markets.”
Booth says CTL is “totally focused on ensuring our brands are well protected with appropriate trade marks and patents. They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but for companies with iconic brands it is something that needs to be constantly guarded against.”
With Cookie Time, it is unclear whether the Chinese company is seeking to use the logo itself, or use it to extract a payment from CTL. CTL has not been approached by the company.
James & Wells lawyers say that smart entrepreneurship and innovation are central to CTL’s DNA with an ongoing new product development stream feeding its three core brands – Cookie Time, Bumper Bars and One Square Meal – a world first meal bar that delivers one third of daily nutritional requirements. One Square Meal has just been launched in major Australian supermarkets in a licensing deal with Sanitarium.
CTL has been making its iconic Cookie Time branded cookies since 1983, and has previously seen off a Hong Kong company which produced a rip-off chocolate chip cookie and packaged it identically. The company is actively focused on international franchise and licensing opportunities. In 2010, CTL opened its first full-scale retail space, the Cookie Time Cookie Bar in Queenstown.
