Milk and dairy products producer Dairibord Zimbabwe has taken Probrands to the High Court seeking an order to stop Probands from infringing on Dairibord’s trademark. Dairibord is alleging that consumers may confuse Probands’ own sterilised milk product for Dairibord’s “Steri Milk” due to similarities in bottle design and packaging. In Dairiboard’s court papers, group chief executive, Anthony Mandiwanza said,
Sometime in June 2017, the respondent (Probrands) introduced its own sterilised milk product (herein called ‘the offending product’) into the market. Be that as it may, the offending sterilised milk product so nearly resembles that of the applicant that it is likely to and has caused confusion in the market.
This is particularly so because of the following features; the bottle profiles of the applicant’s (Dairibord) product and that of the respondent are similar, the bottle lines, necks and ridges of the two products are similar, the closure concepts are both blue in colour, although that of the offending product is much darker….the respondent’s milk is creating a misleading representation that the business of the respondent is that of the applicant.
The matter is still pending.
More: NewsDay
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