back to article No-go woe for doughnut co after Vo-Vo blow

An Australian biscuit maker has launched a legal challenge to a new doughnut by US manufacturer Krispy Kreme, claiming that the confectionery infringes its trade mark rights. Australia's Arnott's has been making the Vo-Vo biscuit for over a hundred years and registered the name as a trade mark in 1906. One variant is the Iced …

COMMENTS

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  1. Greg

    Be honest

    You only wrote this story for that headline.

  2. Jim Carter
    Coat

    Did the Judoon

    Write the headline from a workstation on the moon?

  3. jj

    Dough-vo, Doh! No!

    Backatcha

  4. David S
    Happy

    Ho ho ho

    Nice headline. Yo.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Alert

    Do the customers really know or care who exactly makes their favourite sweet treats ?

    Up until the dawn of the MP3 player everyone was still referring to the personal cassette player as a walkman, people still refer to vacuum cleaners as hoovers. I don't think the consumer really cares who makes the generic item that they have bought so long as it does what they want it to and everyone knows what generic product they are referring to when they use its generic name.

    If people start buying more doughnuts than biscuits it'll be because they prefer the the doughnuts to the biscuits and not because they're confused about who makes them.

    ....netbook anyone ?

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Promotion

    Whomever came up with "No-go woe for doughnut co after Vo-Vo blow" kindly promote them to Prime Minister.

  7. Steve Foster

    Is the Iced Vo-Vo itself a knock-off?

    Of these:

    http://www.nicecupofteaandasitdown.com/biscuits/previous.php3?item=49

    (top item, for those of a slow disposition)

  8. Dan
    Happy

    I only read this for the headline...

    ..absolute genius!

  9. TeeCee Gold badge
    Dead Vulture

    "Posted in Small Biz"

    Ah, not "Bootnotes" then? so:

    Where's the IT angle?

    YEEEESSSSSS!

    <high five>

  10. Ross
    Thumb Up

    Best. Headline. Ever.

    Well done guys!

  11. Jonathan

    I see the IT angle....

    Donuts - the food of IT champions. And thanks a lot - this article has insidiously made me crave donuts right now.

  12. Scott Mckenzie

    Mmm, doughnut.

    That is all.

  13. Les Matthew
    Thumb Up

    So, they're trying to put a

    woah woah on the vo vo?

  14. blackworx
    Coat

    Best Head/Sub Ever

    Have sudden hankering for spongy biscuit with fondant coconut topping, but of course I'm bound tae! Geddit?! .... Bounty! Ha ha oh I am a one.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    Since Arnott's doesn't sell in the US...

    ...then they need to STFU, as it's not unfair competition. I'd much prefer to have the real thing myself, but since I can't, I don't want them to be able to stop me from having a knockoff.

    The Krispy Kreme knockoff is probably better anyway, since they make some damn good doughnuts.

  16. Funky Dennis
    Happy

    Seems like

    Arnott's like a good court battle:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kco6mXH2aJY

  17. Ron Christian

    Congratulations

    That's the most unintelligible headline I've ever seen in The Reg. And that's saying something.

  18. Jeff
    Joke

    KK Australia, not USA

    Krispy Kreme Australia run the dough-vo show.

    Arnotts see it as a low blow

    So they take them to court

    To see they get nought

    For inferior coconutted dough

    Thank you, I'm here all week, try the veal

  19. Jeffrey Nonken
    Flame

    @AC: Since Arnott's doesn't sell in the US...

    "...then they need to STFU, as it's not unfair competition."

    1) It's not about unfair competition, it's about trademark infringement. Did you read the article?

    2) ... But Krispy Kreme sells in Oz. Did you read the article?

    Oh, it's not in the US, so it doesn't matter. Right.

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    AC @15:13

    Thsi case refers to krispy kreme sales in Australia, not the US.

  21. Throatwobbler Mangrove
    Thumb Down

    yeah but...

    "Trade mark law specialist Jude Tonner of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind OUT-LAW.COM, said that if the case happened in the UK then the fact that one product was a 'tribute' to another would make no difference."

    I realise there are lots of similarities between English law and Australian law, but discussing the case as if it were taking place in the UK just doesn't make sense.

    "Since Arnott's doesn't sell in the US......then they need to STFU"

    RTFA, mungbean - "Arnott's has written to Krispy Kreme's Australian arm, demanding that it withdraw the doughnut, but Krispy Kreme Australia chief executive John McGuigan said it will not back down." Krispy Kreme operates in Australia.

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