'British' shops counter-claiming against Sanitarium

Tuesday, 31 July 2018

With a shipment of Weetabix being held hostage in customs, Stuff decided to have a cereal taste-off to see what the fuss is all about.

Shops blocked from importing Weetabix breakfast food from Britain are seeking compensation in a counter-claim against cereal giant Sanitarium.

Counsel for the A Little Bit of Britain shops outlined the reasons for the claim as the shops presented their defence case at a civil hearing before Justice David Gendall in the High Court at Christchurch on Tuesday.

Sanitarium has taken legal action to protect its Weet-Bix brand in the three-day hearing. It has argued that the British-made breakfast food Weetabix – imported by the shops in Riccarton, Rangiora, and online – infringes its trademark.

A Christchurch mini-mart owners is going head-to-head with Sanitarium over the trade mark of Weet-Bix and Weetabix and says there is no way customers could get the two confused.

The dispute reached a head when a consignment of more than 360 boxes of Weetabix was seized by Customs on their arrival in New Zealand.

The shops said in court a counter-claim for compensation was being made because those imported products were now beyond their best-before date and could not be sold.

Lisa Wilson, owner of a British goods store, faces a trademark stoush with Sanitarium over an importation of Weetabix.

They argued the actions of Customs were unlawful and the goods should have been released.

A Christchurch small business owner is battling Sanitarium over similarly-named products.

The importation did not amount to a breach of the Fair Trading Act, Justice Gendall was told. The law allowed importation of products with trademarks registered in their own country – in this case Britain.

The names were not identical, and there was not likely to be confusion 'having regard to the discerning nature of the defendant's customers', counsel said.

The hearing involves civil action taken by the Australasian Conference Association Ltd and others against A Little Bit of Britain Ltd and others. It began on Monday.