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The family business “Sviestas sviestuotas” is located in Kaunas, Palemonas district. He has been making nut cream and halva for over six years. Business owners are confused and scared because changing a brand would mean starting a business from scratch or simply going out of business, especially in such a difficult time when the business is barely alive.
We try to consult with attorneys and we try to preserve the right to use our trademark. At the same time, we fear that we need to create a new brand. We still don’t have specific plans and we can’t imagine how much it will cost, especially in that period, “says Dovilė Stonė, founder of the company” Butter Buttered “.
The State Food and Veterinary Office interprets it after the ruling of the European Court of Justice not to use the name of dairy products for products of plant origin. Received and a complaint to the company’s online store that the nut cream is called peanut butter. The company has already fixed it, but the brand has remained.
“The brand that is on the packaging is ‘Butter with butter’, that is, the person first buys the product by looking at the brand, but there is no butter in the ingredients of that ‘Butter with butter’. The brand means that it misleads the consumer, ”says Rita Sadūnaitė, specialist in the SFVS food department.
At that time, the company does not accept the misrepresentation.
“It just came to our attention then. The whole product and its appearance attest that it cannot be a cow’s milk product: it is brown in color, creamy in consistency, kept at room temperature and packed in jars. A person who hardly If you’ve seen butter butter on the shelf, you’d think it’s butter, “says D. Stone.
Linguists do not understand what the name of such a company would have stumbled upon if “butter has butter” is an old Lithuanian saying, as is “two mushrooms for fat”, which has a figurative meaning.
“A buyer will never feel cheated on seeing the word ‘butter butter’ if it is clearly stated at the bottom that it is a product of this or that composition. These are just my guesses, but I would do some market research instead. And from the point of view of the language, the inspection, I just congratulate those names appearing, ”says Audrius Valotka, head of the Lithuanian State Language Inspectorate.
© Photo from personal archive
According to the lawyers, the company has the ability to maintain the brand.
“The name ‘butter butter’ in the nut cream does not mean that it directly describes the product. It is a creative and original solution. From a legal point of view, there would definitely be arguments to preserve the brand,” says Skirmanta Balsevičienė, lead attorney by Ilaw.
The Minister of Economy and Innovation Aušrinė Armonaitė says that the company has been operating under this name for several years before the decision of the Court of Justice of the European Communities. This shows that the deliberately misleading consumer search was not.
“Regulators should treat such activities in a benevolent and proportionate way. It is very important. Secondly, it is also a matter of European competitiveness. However, we should fight for more competition in the European Union and its regulation should not prevent this. Also it is a more general approach ”, points out A. Armonaitė.
If SFVS does not change the decision, the company will have to change the labels next week and stop using the “Butter Butter” brand.
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