Iceland, the European country, has filed a lawsuit against an aged British supermarket chain, Iceland Foods.
The country’s government announced that it has taken legal action against the supermarket chain, on behalf of its businesses and people.
In a statement, the government of Iceland revealed its goal is to ensure the right of Icelandic companies to use the word “Iceland” in relation to their goods and services.
The issue seems to arise from a European trademark registration for the word mark ICELAND, which is owned by Iceland Foods.
Founded in 1969 and operating online from the domain Iceland.co.uk, the 47 year old company’s representatives stated:
“We very much regret that the Government of Iceland has apparently decided to take legal action over the use of the name Iceland. Contrary to their assertion we have received no recent approaches to achieve an amicable resolution of this issue, which would be our preferred approach.”
The government of Iceland has now filed a motion to cancel the ICELAND mark, which was applied for in 2002 and was granted in 2014.
The domain Iceland.co.uk was registered in 1996. Meanwhile, the matching .com, Iceland.com, was registered in 1997, most likely after it dropped from an earlier registration.
If the British frozen food chain were forced to abandon its mark, it might have to change its name and .co.uk domain name.
Would the domain Iceland.com be in danger?
Probably not, but never be certain about anything, when an entire government is mobilized.
