Zuma owners win trademark dispute with dog food brand
The owners of Michelin-starred London restaurant Zuma have won a court battle against a businesswoman who used the name for her brand of dog food.
Azumi Limited went to the High Court after entrepreneur Zoe Vanderbilt set up Zuma's Choice Pet Products Ltd in 2014, reported the Daily Mail.
Addressing Judge Melissa Clarke, Zuma chef and co-founder Rainer Becker said: "Sometimes it smells, sometimes it is just unpleasant and people many times associate dog food with bad food.
"So Zuma could serve bad food, dog food..I would never call a restaurant Pedigree because Pedigree is, I think, a well-known animal pet food.
"I know people would associate that food for the animals with my food served in my restaurant."
Vanderbilt said she named the brand after her dog, a Japanese Akita/German Shepherd cross but Judge Clarke said that the pet "is not a party to the proceedings, nor is it a natural person or company".
"I am satisfied that there is… an inherent tension between dog food and human food of any type and an even greater tension between dog food and food served to humans in high quality restaurants such as Zuma," she said.
Vanderbilt was ordered to stop breaching the restaurant's trademarks.
She will not have to change the name of her company but she cannot use the word Zuma to sell pet food anywhere in Europe.
