If your parents chose to give you the name Armani, when
you grew up could you open a boutique called "Armani"?
Not so simple, huh
Colette Hayman of Manly finds herself in an analogous pickle at
the moment, being sued by the fashion goddess Collette Dinnigan
over whether she can call her little accessories brand in Brookvale
"Colette Accessories".
Collette with two L's says she can't. The
Competition & Consumer Act (CCA) says
(well, it doesn't say this, the courts say that it says this)
that, if you develop a substantial reputation in a trading name so
that it's closely identified in the consumer's mind with
you, others cannot then purloin that name or anything similar and
in effect "trade off" your reputation and goodwill. The
legal risk is that punters will be confused into thinking that
Colette Accessories is in some way connected with Collette
Dinnigan.
