Firms disagree over trademark infringement

Days after the Rite Foods Limited took the Nigerian Bottling Company (NBC) to court over alleged trademark infringement, the bottling firm said it had done no wrong and promised to contest the case in court.

Rite Foods had alleged that NBC’s Predator Energy drink, with a lion insignia, was similar to its own product, Fearless Energy drink, which had existed for three years before the company began to produce Predator.
 
In its response, yesterday, the NBC said: “Given that the case is now going through due legal process, we are limited in what we can say publicly. However, in the interest of clarity and accuracy, both NBC and Predator Energy would like to make two things clear: We are well within our rights to continue to sell the Predator products and secondly, neither NBC nor its managing director is in breach of any court order. 

“Naturally, we will contest the case vigorously and after due consideration of the merits of the case, we are confident that the court will confirm our rights based mainly on the facts that the bottles and logos are not confusingly similar.”