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Iceland is Suing a Supermarket That's Using Its Name (cnn.com)
In a case which could puzzle copyright, trademark, and intellectual property offices, Iceland (the country) is not happy with a Britain supermarket chain, which is also called Iceland. From a CNN report:On Friday, Iceland, the country, took legal action against Iceland (the retailer), saying its enforcement of a trademark has prevented local firms from marketing their products using the name. Iceland Foods holds a Europe-wide trademark for the name Iceland, which it has been trading under for 46 years. "Iceland Foods has aggressively pursued and won multiple cases against Icelandic companies which use 'ICELAND' in their representation or as part of their trademark, even in cases when the products and services do not compete," the government said in a statement. The Icelandic government is now asking the European Union Intellectual Property Office to invalidate the trademark.
NOT from Iceland here, but probably they are upset about the fact that the store branding is "Iceland" and not something like "Iceland foods", and, as the article states, that the food store has prevented other non-conflicting uses of "Iceland" in brand names.
The result is that companies that are actually based in Iceland cannot call themselves "Iceland widgets" or something similar.
Imagine if there were a US company called "Canada" that sold food and was able to stop Canada Computers from using "Canada" in its name.
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
You need to read better then. It is clearly explained that Iceland (the country) reacts because Iceland (the company) is suing Icelandic companies who try to sell their products in the EU, and using Iceland in product names or descriptions.
Because Iceland the country actually seems to have a vested interest in making sure their citizens can use their own country's name in business ventures. What a novel idea, a country looking out for its citizens...
The crux of this case is that Iceland The Country is saying Iceland the Supermarket are being dicks and suing or threatening Icelandic citizens and businesses for having commercial ventures with the name Iceland in the name.
To use your own example, suppose there was a US supermarket named Canada, that was threatening Canada Computers with a cease and desist and forcing them to change their name.
The country isn't claiming that the supermarket can't use the name, they are defending other businesses that use Iceland in their names from being threatened and sued by the supermarket.
Iceland the retailer seems to think it has to stop all other businesses using Iceland in any context. Iceland the country it's upset because it makes it hard for Icelandic businesses to operate in Europe, even when they aren't supermarkets or likely to be confused with the British retailer.
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SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Try again.
1) The lawsuit was over Icesave, not over the failure of the three banks.
2) Icesave was a savings program created by Landsbankinn backed by a private fund as the primary insurer.
3) The secondary insurer was the government of the respective area that the customers were from - Iceland was the secondary insurer in Iceland, the UK government in the UK, and the Dutch government in the Netherlands.
4) When the market crashed, the private fund went bankrupt. This passed insurance responsibility to the secondary insurers.
5) Iceland paid Icelanders, as the secondary insurer for the Icelandic market, up to the insured limit. They later passed a bill paying out the full value of the accounts to Icelandic customers.
6) The UK and Dutch governments, however, tried to shirk their responsibilities as the secondary insurers in their respective markets, and instead tried to blackmail Iceland into insuring it for them. A great deal of pressure was put on Iceland on a wide variety of fronts, ranging from EU negotiations to emergency loans to fisheries.
7) The then-government commenced negotiations and came up with a bill to pay the majority of the UK and Netherlands' responsibilities, to try to be able to put it behind them and get the economy back on track. Our president rejected it, which put it to referendum. The public overwhelmingly rejected it.
8) The next government used the failure to try to negotiate a better deal and got one for reduced, but still extremely painful covering of the UK and Netherlands' liabilities. Again it was vetoed, and again the public rejected it, although not by as large of a margin.
9) The UK and Netherlands decided that this wasn't going anywhere, so took us to the EFTA court.
10) The EFTA court reviewed the case, and found in our favour on all counts. The UK and Netherlands did bear responsibility as the secondary insurers and not Iceland. As is standard, all of the costs of all of the litigation additionally fell on them.
Wingus, Dingus! Listen up!
On the other hand Iceland the supermarket is based in England, and what is spoken in England is English without any qualification. What the rest of the world speeks can be qualified as American English, Canadian English etc. but imposing that requirement on English people is a extremely insulting.