Lush trademarks cosmetics range named after Amazon's UK boss
'Christopher North' is being used as a toiletry brand to 'make a point' to Amazon about its activities
Lush founder Mark Constantine says he took Amazon to court after failing to reach an amicable settlement. Photograph: Lush
Handmade cosmetics company Lush is trying to force Amazon to clean up its image by making a series of new bathroom products named after the UK boss of the online retail group.
The husband and wife team behind Lush – which this week won a high court battle against Amazon over its use of the word "lush" to sell rival cosmetics – has
trademarked the name "Christopher North" as a brand name for a new range of toiletries, which could eventually extend to deodorants and hair removing cream. North is the managing director of Amazon.co.uk.
In a high court ruling this week Judge John Baldwin QC said: "[The] right of the public to access technological development does not go so far as to allow a trader such as Amazon to ride roughshod over intellectual property rights, to treat trademarks such as Lush as no more than a generic indication of a class of goods in which the consumer might have an interest."
Mark Constantine, who together with his wife Mo founded Lush with one shop in Poole in 1995, said he took Amazon to court and started making the new range of North toiletries after the US company ignored all his attempts to resolve the dispute amicably.
"We asked them 17 times before we went to court," he said. "After a while you realise you're being bullied."
Constantine's decision to
trademark North's name and create the shower gel has certainly got his attention. The Lush boss said Amazon's lawyers had reported that North is "hopping mad".
Constantine said he had trademarked the name of Amazon boss to "make a point about how upsetting it is to have something personal to you, used by someone else". He said the North shower product was originally meant to be a bit of a joke and not go on sale.
But, after Amazon refused to concede it was doing anything wrong and vowed to appeal against the High Court ruling, Constantine decided he was not going to put up with Amazon's "bullying unpleasantness" anymore and would consider when to put the North products on his shop shelves.
"How are they going to behave, are they going to do the right thing, or continue to be naughty?" he said. "If this was a normal business relationship it would have been a joke between us. But this is Amazon, how will they behave?
"We are going to keep this on the table and wait and see. If you're not going to behave in a way that's appropriate, there should be some comeback."
If the North shower gel does go on sale all profits will go to good causes, and Constantine has already held discussions with tax avoidance protesters UK Uncut.
If the bright pink shower smoothie, which is a mix of murumuru butter, brazil nut oil and acai berry, doesn't have the desired effect of reining in Amazon, Lush could launch a whole series of North products using its new trademark, including deodorants, toothpaste, leg wax and "non-medicated toilet preparations".
The packaging of the North shower gel is covered in tongue-in-cheek digs at Amazon's claimed tax avoidance and contentious business strategies.
Constantine said his designers had a "lot of fun" making the product, which is especially recommended for those with a "recent history of dry dull skin" and promises to flow "straight to your fulfilment centre with its super saver delivery".
The product also boasts the "top tip: Kindle a new love for your skin, it's not taxing to take care of your skin with this product packed with Amazon Prime ingredients".
Constantine – who has now taken the precaution of buying up the trademark to his own name in case Amazon tries a countermove – is now ready for a another outbreak of hostilities with Amazon: "Now I've said this to you," he said, "they will no doubt give us another whopping with a stick."
Source:
http://www.theguardian.com/technolog...ristoper-north
Lush trademarks cosmetics range named after Amazon's UK boss:
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