slight copy

Check out these new Brazilian yoghurts. Notice any similarities?

And they've really done their homework. They even ripped off the design of the boxes that our smoothies come in. Ouch.

Comments

[donna mcculloch]

Thank you very much for the mistletoe, I received it in the post this morning. What a lovely gesture. Those yoghurts are a complete copy, just remember imitation is the best form of flattery.

[Irregular Shed]

Send in your innocent LAWYER BOTZ!

[joanna tidball]

Without divulging any top-secret information, how do you respond to these copy-cat cases?

[Liz]

What a flippin CHEEK!

I've pasted some of their text into www.freetranslation.com (it's Portuguese in case you don't know).

It comes out in a bit of a muddle, but you can see they really have COMPLETELY copied your ideas! The humour (well, attempt at in their case!), invite to 'join the family', etc.; they even wondered if they should give up their jobs - what a coincidence!

Their smoothies sound horrid though - THEY PUT DEMERARA SUGAR IN THEM! They say it's healthy - huh?!

How can they get away with this?!

'Snot right!

PS Thanks very much for my Mistletoe; lovely thought, but I don't think mine works. Any chance I can swap it for an ipod?

[adam]

ouch indeed. Their homework even extends to having wavy grass at the bottom of their site, just like the Fruitstock site does. Watch out for Fruitstock Brazilan style, next year.

P.S. thanks for the mistletoe :)

[dan at innocent]

To answer Joanna's question - "Without divulging any top-secret information, how do you respond to these copy-cat cases?" - I guess it's like this...

We speak to lawyers. We check what rights we have, and whether any infringements have occurred. It's pretty boring stuff. What gets us is that there's a whole world of colour and design out there - why on Earth don't people think up their own stuff? After all, that's why you start up your own company in the first place - to think up your own ideas, to follow your own thoughts and principles. Not to be lazy and steal other people's.

[Dave Phillips]

"Without divulging any top-secret information, how do you respond to these copy-cat cases?"

As Dan has already said, they speak to lawyers. There are potential copyright infringements relating to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, in terms of the material expression of the published material on their website as well as on the bottles. In layman's terms, Brazilian law would hold that, under the Berne Convention, Brazil must treat any material published in the UK with the same respect as material published in Brazil. If they've wholesale copied material from the website and bottles (rather than the idea itself), they'll have breached copyright.

There are also issues in design. Design protection covers the appearance of the product including decoration and colours. If Innocent Ltd has a Registered Design for its logo, it is likely this Brazilian yoghurt company has committed a breach However, even if the design is unregistered (unlikely), an automatic Design Right comes into being when someone creates an original design.

Finally, there are trademark issues, and this will certainly apply to the bottles and the boxes. A trade mark, which is international in scope and of which Innocent have a couple, protects any sign or symbol that allows customers to tell them apart from a competitor. Names, logos, slogans, domain names and several other things can be protected. If I emember correctly, both the name and logo of Innocent are trademarked. Anyone who uses a similar mark for a similar product is likely to be found guilty of the offence of 'Passing Off'.

That's a brief legal bit for you!

[Paul H. Colman]

They've probably got some bloke with a beard to write the copy as well, buggers.

[Kerry]

Um, you really ought to put a NOFOLLOW tag onto that link - they don't really deserve the boost in search engine rankings that your link will give them.

[Ben]

My Brazilian isn't perfect, but a lot of that text looks mighty similar too. And their blog.

Interested in the beard situation as well.

[Colman]

I know Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and have contacts over there. Just say the word.

[Alex]

I think Paul's made the best suggestion so far. Violence and a painful death get my vote.

[Hilde]

I just got back from a trip to Australia and even there they've got a brand that is very similar to yours:

http://www.nudie.com.au/drinks.htm

What do you think?

P.S. Thanks for the mistletoe! You sure hand out great presents!
Do you think Matt from operations would mind if I came over with a sprig?

[Richie]

What do you think about:

1.Fresh Samantha Juice
2.Odwalla Juice

Our US Smoothies Company...

They were the First making smoothies. Innocent copy them too?

www.odwalla.com

[Evee]

ouch. thats not even trying really is it =p hmm.. something that blatent must be stopped though doncha think? though so many things are copying innocent nowadays. the inevitable tescos has done a smoothie, listing the exact amount of fruits they use, and i think theres some sort of cereal which has veeeeerrry similar innocent style graffiti on the box. the cheaters!

[Orlaith O'B]

Oh my goodness! I am soo annoyed! It really ANNOYS me when people STEAL ideas! Grrr >;(! I just want someone really BIG to tell them that they are cheaters and they should close their company down! I'll stop now before I say anything really inappropriate!( lol)
Love angry Orlaith

P.S. Unfortunately don't think my mistletoe is arriving. My sister got hers a couple of days ago and she sent off for hers after i sent off for mine :(. Maybe it got lost in the post? Oh well, its the thaught that counts, thanks innocent!

[dan at innocent]

Hilde - we know about Nudie. That's a sad story for another day, but they ripped us off too, upsettingly.

Richie - we love Odwalla and Fresh Samantha. Inspiration? Definitely. They're great companies. Did we copy? Absolutely not. Check out their packaging, design, words and then check ours. Different.

[Hilde]

Richie, it's not about who was the first one to make smoothies...

We all know there are lots of companies making smoothies, plagiarism is about the company's branding.

Java Juice (Perth, WA) makes smoothies and juices as well and though the philosophy behind the business might be the same, their brand is nothing like Innocent's.

www.javajuice.com.au

[Hilde]

Dan - that's sad. I was kind of hoping it was a daughter/cousin firm or something...

[Liam]

You're officially succesful.

[3.1]

Bar stewards.
But yes - I agree with Liam. This poser of a yoghurt thingy proves your success, and your mighty influence on the peoples.

[Blip]

Text is also a complete ripoff. Ashamed brazilian says so. And the name means somethin like "of good nature",hahahaa.

I must say that I prefer the brazilian copy to the spanish copy, called Romàntics.

[Richie]

I agree with 3.1
Fresh Samantha and Odwalla influenced innocent, innocent influenced nudie, nudie and innocent influenced this brazilian yoghurt

[Chris]

Take off and nuke them from orbit, it's the only way to be sure.

(Applies equally to aliens, plagarising foreign businesses, and badgers.)

(I hate badgers.)

(Furry little...)

[dan at innocent]

Hello again Richie. The story with Nudie is a bit more than 'influenced'. A few years ago a man called Tim came over from Australia to talk to us about obtaining the license to run the innocent business in Oz. We were pretty excited - he seemed like a nice chap - so we started talking to Tim. He spent quite a bit of time at Fruit Towers getting to know us and the business.

After a while we had all of the legal papers drawn up, ready for Tim to become innocent. We were happy for him to carry on our good work on the other side of the world. But right at the last minute, Tim had a change of heart, decided not to sign and disappeared back off to Sydney.

Much to our surprise, a few months later a smoothie company called Nudie appeared in Australia. There were a few similarities to innocent. Things looked familiar. And the man behind Nudie? Why, Tim of course.

We learned our lesson.

[Hilde]

:o(

[3.1]

What a back-stabber!

[fenella]

OMG, THATS APPALLING!!!

[CG]

even the website is a rip off!

and that New Zealand smoothie company aint much better either!

[Mari]

I live in London but my family is from Brazil and I'm here for Christmas. When I'm in the UK I drink lots of 'Innocent' smoothies, but I've just tried the new 'do bem' yogurts and I must say they are delicious. I think 'Innocent' should be inspired and make more yogurts like that cause I'm gonna miss 'do bem' once I'm back in London in January.

[Lu]

I think Innocent should change its name to Vein or maybe Egocentric

[Liam]

If I'm ever in Brazil, I tells ya!!!

[Nick]

Heard about the Nudie story. What a fake. Are you sure there's nothing you can do. I totally think he's copied a lot of things about you guys.

[Dread-lock]

From where does the influency comes from? Now a days, copies are spreading all over the world. Your fruit business is not the first and won't be the last. Just relax and put your lawyers on the go. (If have no solutions, relax and make a joke on that). I'm brazilian and I have never seen this shit on the market, and an email with that copy case is spreading on internet. For sure those guys have a branding problem to solve.

[Paula]

Hello, I am brazilian and last week I came across one of the bottles of "do bem" (actually just the bottle because the juice was already gone). I was amazed with the boldness of the product, unlike any other produced here in Brazil. From concept to design. Well, now - and knowing it all - I am very frustrated, as a graphic designer, that good ideas are being ripped off like that. People are just too damn lazy to think a little. I wish something could be done to make it up to you guys.

[Sandra]

I’m Brazilian too. I’m also truly shocked and somehow ashamed.
I think I missed this post because in December 2006 my mistletoe and me were in... err... Brazil. I spent quite a while there, went shopping in supermarkets and healthfood shops alike. Didn’t see any of this evil DoBem yoghurt anywhere.

I checked their website, and after a bit of google work, found out the company is located in Rio (one place I didn’t go to) and they received a Brazilian award for best packaging/marketing!!! Outrageous. Also went into a few Brazilian blogs and other websites where people have spotted the copy and were denouncing this.
Apparently the brand, packaging, site and all promotional materials were “created” by a company called Packaging Brands (www.packaging.com.br) for the company that makes DoBem yoghurt. Interesting to notice that even though they received a prize for their “creation”, Packaging Brands decided not to include DoBem yoghurt bottles as part of their web portfolio. I wonder why.

The more I read about it the more speechless I became. And angry. Plus... how on earth did they manage to copy the boxes?!? The whole thing stinks. As a devoted innocent customer, I thought of sending an e-mail to my far-away friends and get a word-of-mouth thing going. I wonder if there’s anything else I could do to help...
xx

[dan at innocent]

Don't know how they managed to pinch the box design too. They must have clever spies.

[Joshua Hughes @ Fresh Branding]

Sandra wrote: "Interesting to notice that even though they received a prize for their “creation”, Packaging Brands decided not to include DoBem yoghurt bottles as part of their web portfolio. I wonder why."

Well, they do now - obviously feeling a little braver than back in August!

As a designer I've had numerous website ideas stolen, but the problem is a little harder to solve when the perpetrators aren't in the UK. It's simpler to take the flattery approach, and see it as an endorsement of your high quality product.

Keep up the great work guys.

[Diego]

I am a brazilian designer and I feel very sad with this...

In the name of all the brazilian design.. I apologize... =P

sorry!!!!!!!

we have good things too...

[dan at innocent]

You don't need to apologise Diego. It's not your fault.

Rest assured, we know and love good Brazilian things. Zico, beaches, river deltas, cachaca...

[Nicola]

I lived in Aus for many years and returned 4 years ago. Don't shout me down, but I loved the drinks - humourous good stuff - but when I returned, I just presumed Innocent was the same lot - I mean it is soooo similar I thought Innocent was a different trading name - Just presumed that nudie was too naughy for British folk! So for some bizarre reason I googled just now to sort out once and for all - and blow me down, it's two different companies and nudie is a complete rip off - they have recently won the Best marketing campaign at the global 2008 Beverage Innovation Awards in Moscow on 9 April. This ain't good.