ireland2canada

'Cause we are just 'awesome'. The Spar selection is even better btw.

Butch Cassidy

Actually Burger King was once know as Hungry Jacks (Only in Western Australia though to my Knowledge)

Ecthilion

Was browsing for some pictures and then I found this thread through google.

Your notifying of the Toronto Sun was a success as I saw a page on the fraudulent Tim Hortons and the designer of "Timmies" said Tim Hortons are taking legal action.

I believe notifying Tim Hortons was the right thing to do. Stop intellectual property sponging!

Peace.

ukleaf

Interesting, I have had a few calls from the Toronto Sun, although I haven't spoken to anyone as yet.

Do you have a link to the story?

Biiiiink

I just googled and it seems this might be what the poster above is talking about?

Ecthilion

Yes, the above link is the article I was referring to.

Jingsamichty

Hey Dean / ukleaf,

I don't know why you didn't just pour petrol through the letterbox and torch the place.

I would say, "I hope you're happy now," but you probably are.

What a snivelling wee clipe.

Biiiiink

Oh please, any idiot who does something like that in 2008 with internet/instant photos around the globe deserves what they get. What was he thinking?! If he's as brainless as that about business, I'd worry about his standards in the kitchens.

Why didn't he just ape the format - cheap donuts and manky coffee. He could even have called it Timmies as far as I'm concerned. But why did he have to steal someone else's logo exactly?

Jingsamichty

But he has just aped the format. And is a generic plastic coffee and doughnut shop such a novel and original concept?

My point though, is that Tim Hortons Inc. is big enough and powerful enough to protect its own business as it sees fit. Its marketing people probably can't believe the fact that there are people in Britain who are so infatuated with their product that they'll behave like classroom tell-tales to 'protect' their image (albeit with much more serious consequences)

Personally, I would never have the brass neck (or half a brain?) to come onto an internet forum and proudly admit that I had cliped on someone's business which could result in it being closed down. Wow! I still can't believe ukleaf actually did that, and got his real name plastered in the papers...

Biiiiink

I don't have a problem with him aping the format, that's not copyright. But the logo is, and he's an word-class idiot for copying that. Stupid beyond belief, I can't have sympathy.

They're getting into Spars, someone said they're selling them in Tesco branches. They have to protect their logo when they're so new in the market, is that right taken away from them because they're "big"? How do we know they weren't already aware of this shop? We don't. That looks like a pretty generic email response upthread to me.

Are you implying that the owner of "Timmies" is going to hunt him down? Now that's a serious allegation.

Jingsamichty

Is "Timmies" actually their logo? I don't know. Someone else here suggested it isn't, so it is simply aping their format.

My point exactly. If they want to protect their image, they ought to be doing ot for themselves - which they may well have done, as you suggest. They shouldn't need Joe Public to tell tales. If I was a TH shareholder, I wouldn't want to read that my assets were being protected by my adoring public. I'd want to know that a crack team of heavyweight lawyers carpet-bombed any potential copyright infirnger within seconds of opening. (The fact that they haven't closed him down already suggests that they guy is actually in the clear.)

I'm not suggesting he's going to do it, but I certainly wouldn't take that risk. Let's face it... now he knows where to find him. Anyway, Biiiiink, why should ukleaf think that he has the right to cause this man such grief, yet be immune from any form of comeback?

Biiiiink

When I said ape their format, I meant serve cheap donuts and mudwater coffee in a fast food cafe setting - I didn't mean copy their logo, that's not okay at all. A quick google shows the "signature" style font is trademarked by them, as is the "always fresh oval background design". I can't see that "Timmies" is also trademarked but that doesn't mean it isn't, and it's certainly associated with them although not yet in the UK I'd say. If he'd called himself Timmies Coffee and had a different logo I don't think there'd be a case to answer. But as it is, it's plainly obvious the guy is knocking them off and stealing their trademark.

So do we agree that what the Leeds guy did wasn't on? You just don't think it was down to an individual consumer to point it out to TH's? You think it's only okay for the Leeds guy to be caught if a member of TH's legal department happens to be out walking in town and spots it? Bizarre!

I don't think UKleaf has anything to be concerned about. His picture may be used in evidence, what else has he got to do with any of it? Suggesting that he should be scared for taking this action is not on though, and not true.

I don't think "the fact that they haven't closed him down already suggests that they guy is actually in the clear" is right. These things take time. They won't stop him trading, they'll insist he change his name. He may or may not have to pay them something, I have no idea how that works. I can't feel sorry for him, such a stupid thing to steal a global corporation's logo... even my 5yr old knows you can't copy someone else's work

Jingsamichty

I've never suggested that what the Leeds shop owner has done is OK. He takes his own business risks. Silly stupid - yes, but that's not the point here.

What I've said is I think it is wrong, petty, spiteful and vindictive for ukleaf to have grassed him up to the press and to Tim Hortons Inc. Unless he is a shareholder, it is NO BUSINESS of ukleaf's whether this guy has copied Tim Hortons or not.

I asked him earlier if he had ever bought a pirate DVD, or knock-off goods, as that's the same principle... but that was conveniently brushed over.

Biiiiink

It is, he was conned into thinking it was a TH's by the guy's use of the logo. Read his posts, he was let down and disappointed after discovering the products he'd bought from them were fake.

Buying something knowing it's fake is one thing, but buying something believing it to be the genuine article is what we're talking about with this guy in Leeds.

Jingsamichty

As we're never going to agree on this Biiiink, I'll just finish by saying that Tim Horton's makes a fortune by passing off brown dishwater as a poor imitation of a cup of coffee.

I'll get me coat...