David and Goliath battle as Harrods orders roadside cafe to change its sign for copyright infringemt
 

Exclusive superstore Harrods has told a roadside cafe to change its sign because it is too similar to the luxury brand, the store has claimed.

Hollands Cafe Lounge received a letter on May 15 from the shop's bosses accusing them of 'copyright infringement' of their famous sign.

But the family-run restaurant, which nestles on the side of the busy A12 near Rivenhall, Essex, is a far cry from the million-square foot store in Knightsbridge, London.


Nigel Holland, who runs the cafe for his wife Leyla, said it was a 'David and Goliath' battle but remained defiant.

Mr Holland said: 'Harrods sent us a letter earlier this month asking us to change our name and change our logo because it was too similar to theirs.

'It is absolute rubbish. It is just bizarre and it is obviously causing us a lot of problems and worry.

'We have put in a lot of our money into this business - it is a little family run restaurant. It is a David and Goliath fight - it is a case of being taken on by the big boys.'

Mr Holland said the cafe opened four months ago and they hope they will be able to expand it into a chain of roadside restaurants.

Harrods have now offered to pay him to change his sign

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/...00_224x116.jpg

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/...16_224x116.jpg

The full story here

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ringement.html

Harrods will lose this. 100%

Hollands looks like a fairly common font, we have a store called Younkers in the Midwest and it's sort of similar. I think the shape of the word could be confusing. Although one is a diner, one is a luxury megastore... quite a bit different.

Well, the font is similar. It is his name that he's using so they wouldnt stand a chance in court on that one.:2 cents:

If it does end up in court I hope they do lose.

it depends if harrods developed the font for it but its a stretch.

The font does look the same but as far as i know Harrods dont own the font

The Hollands guy is getting some good publicty from this so he is happy about it lol

If they're offering to pay him to change it now, they know they have no shot at this.

Yeah I dont think they did and its a bit of a change around if they are now offering him money to change his sign instead of going to court

BTW Tony nice to see u posting again hope u are well

Thanks :)

They did it years ago with a pound shop called 'arrods' same font and colors.

hope this goes to court

I'm going to sue them for using my last name - I'm also the owner of the Netherlands
(but that's unofficial) :upsidedow

yeah go for it mate :)

I would take the money and change the sign.

The sign company probably modeled the sign after Harrods....get real.

Or the sign company grabbed a standard (and overused) free font at random, and Harrod's think they own it.

if they own the font they are right and the other guys have to change it.

In the meantime nice marketing for hollands :thumbsup even if they need to change their logo, they win

I wouldn't try to use that angle in court without producing photos of 10-20
other known companies that are also using it.

Considering how copyright infringement works these days I guess all he has to do is
claim that a customer painted the sign and he has no control over what they do.

Other than the H in the Font.. they dont have much.

Should have offerd them a deal to come on board.

That's probably not difficult to do.

Congrats on the new avatar too :thumbsup

Yeah, customer put up the sign, he had no control of who puts up signs on his store...