Takis Biltong attaches rivals SA trademarks

Takis Biltong attached 89 SA trademarks of snack foods rival Grupo Bimbo, the Mexican-registered food giant with annual revenue of $22.8bn, after it failed to pay legal costs accumulated in a nine-year battle over trademark rights. It took Grupo Bimbo to court to stop it from selling tortilla chips in SA under the brand Takis Fuego. The Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) in December decided in favour of Takis Biltong, overturning an earlier decision by the same court, and ordered that the registration of the trademark Takis Fuego be cancelled on the grounds that the use of the name ‘Takis’ was likely to cause confusion in the minds of consumers. That decision was challenged by Grupo Bimbo in the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA), which again ruled in favour of the local firm. Despite this, Takis Fuego products continue to be sold across the country in violation of the court order. Moneyweb reports that Grupo Bimbo claimed in its court papers that it was not responsible for Takis-branded products being sold in SA, as these appeared to be imported by third-party suppliers.

Andrew Papadopoulos, an attorney at Kisch IP, which is representing Takis Biltong, says the High Court and the SCA held Grupo Bimbo responsible for the legal bills of the SA company. ‘This is not a huge amount of money for a company like Grupo Bimbo, yet when we sent them our letter of demand they replied that they would not pay the full amount, and proposed paying a reduced amount in phases, claiming they had cash flow problems. Even to this they did not do. This is completely unacceptable, and the reasons given for non-payment are implausible, leaving us no option but to attach 89 trademarks registered by the group in SA. We intend to recoup our costs by selling these trademarks.’ Moneyweb notes that Takis Biltong registered its trademarks in May 2007 under the category ‘meat, fish, poultry, and game, preserved meats, meat extracts, sausages’. The Mexican group applied to register its ‘Takis’ trademarks in 2012 under a different food category. A dispute was declared in 2015.