Today the Dutch fashion group G-Star lost its case in summary proceedings against PepsiCo. This matter was about PepsiCo's new soft drink PEPSI RAW, its latest attempt to win the 'knowledgable consumer' for its cola. This cola variant contains, instead of a number of artificial ingrediënts, natural products such as apple extract, coca leaves en and can sugar. A typical 'RAW' drink, PepsiCo argued. But the drink is also a pain in the eye of G-Star, that has used its mark G-STAR RAW for fashion for over ten years. G-Star holds that PepsiCo, by using Pepsi RAW, willfully takes an unfair advantage of its mark, and dilutes the RAW trademarks. G-Star demanded that PepsiCo would stop the use all over Europe. As PepsiCo already had promised that it will - for the moment - not sell outside the UK, the conflict in fact only related to the UK situation. Today the Summary Proceedings Judge of the District Court of The Hague held that the Intel-decision of 27 November 2008 contains strict evidential rules. The Judge was not impressed by the evidence provided of the said dilution, merely concerns that were expressed by G-Star dealers. Therefore the sale of Pepsi RAW can be continued.
Maarten Haak
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Today the Dutch fashion group G-Star lost its case in summary proceedings against PepsiCo. This matter was about PepsiCo's new soft drink PEPSI RAW, its latest attempt to win the 'knowledgable consumer' for its cola. This cola variant contains, instead of a number of artificial ingrediënts, natural products such as apple extract, coca leaves en and can sugar. A typical 'RAW' drink, PepsiCo argued. But the drink is also a pain in the eye of G-Star, that has used its mark G-STAR RAW for fashion for over ten years. G-Star holds that PepsiCo, by using Pepsi RAW, willfully takes an unfair advantage of its mark, and dilutes the RAW trademarks. G-Star demanded that PepsiCo would stop the use all over Europe. As PepsiCo already had promised that it will - for the moment - not sell outside the UK, the conflict in fact only related to the UK situation. Today the Summary Proceedings Judge of the District Court of The Hague held that the Intel-decision of 27 November 2008 contains strict evidential rules. The Judge was not impressed by the evidence provided of the said dilution, merely concerns that were expressed by G-Star dealers. Therefore the sale of Pepsi RAW can be continued.
Maarten Haak