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 …

[Greg]

Be honest

You only wrote this story for that headline.

[Jim Carter]

Did the Judoon

Write the headline from a workstation on the moon?

[jj]

Dough-vo, Doh! No!

Backatcha

[David S]

Ho ho ho

Nice headline. Yo.

[Anonymous Coward]

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 ?

[Anonymous Coward]

Promotion

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

[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)

[Dan]

I only read this for the headline...

..absolute genius!

[TeeCee]

"Posted in Small Biz"

Ah, not "Bootnotes" then? so:

Where's the IT angle?

YEEEESSSSSS!

<high five>

[Ross]

Best. Headline. Ever.

Well done guys!

[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.

[Scott Mckenzie]

Mmm, doughnut.

That is all.

[Les Matthew]

So, they're trying to put a

woah woah on the vo vo?

[blackworx]

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.

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

[Funky Dennis]

Seems like

Arnott's like a good court battle:

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

[Ron Christian]

Congratulations

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

[Jeff]

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

[Jeffrey Nonken]

@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.

[Anonymous Coward]

AC @15:13

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

[Throatwobbler Mangrove]

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.