Coffee firm Di Bella banned from trademarking tagline used by rival Vittoria for four years
A coffee firm has been banned from trademarking two slogans on the grounds that a competitor had been using the very same phrases in its advertising for four years.
Di Bella Coffee tried to register ‘Di Bella Coffee, we know coffee’ and ‘Crop to cup, we know coffee’, despite apparently knowing that its rival, Vittoria Food and Beverage, has adopted the ‘we know coffee’ tagline since August 2010.
A Trade Mark hearing found Di Bella had made the trade mark application in bad faith.
Vittoria Food and Beverage chief executive Les Schirato said: “Vittoria is committed to protecting its intellectual property rights. The decision is a great win for companies who have spent time, money and resources in building their brands.”
Vittoria’s global ad campaign featured Al Pacino and the ‘we know coffee’ tagline. But in March 2012 Di Bella also began using the tagline with one TV advert featuring Phillip Di Bella saying: “I’m not Pacino and I know coffee”.
Hearings officer Michael Kirov said in the ruling: “It is one thing to imitate a rival’s advertising campaign, but it is quite another to seek to acquire registered rights in trade marks which feature the very tagline prominently used in that advertising.”
Steve Jones
