Every now and then a story pops up in the papers in which a
large company is accused of using its trade mark rights to bully a
smaller entity. The most recent example involves the well-known
chicken restaurant chain, Nando's, which has sought to assert
its trade mark rights against an independent chicken restaurant
going by the name of Fernando's.
Nando's (or, to give it its full name, Nando's
ChickenLand Limited) is the proprietor of numerous UK trade mark
registrations, including for the plain word NANDO'S, a stylised
red version of the same word, a black, red and white cockerel logo,
and several marks incorporating the word 'Peri'.
Reading-based independent chicken restaurant, Fernando's,
opened its doors to the public in September 2017. Its signage
sports the word 'Fernando's' in stylised red typeface
along with the word 'PERI PERI', and it also features
a black, red, white and yellow cockerel logo. Nando's evidently
believes that this amounts to trade mark
