On Thursday, the Munich Higher Regional Court dismissed the appeal brought by the Hamburg fish finger manufacturer against a similar advertising figure used by Cuxhaven competitor Appel Feinkost. The justification is still pending.
No unfair competition
Iglo sued, arguing that there was a risk of confusion for consumers. Because Appel also advertises its fish products with a bearded gentleman in front of a maritime backdrop. However, the Senate obviously does not see any unfair competition, as can be seen from the dismissal of the lawsuit. During the morning hearing, the presiding judge, Andreas Müller, made it clear that he considered the likelihood of confusion to be very low. “According to our preliminary opinion, a deception about the company’s origin is ruled out.” The preliminary assessment resulted in the dismissal of the lawsuit in the afternoon.
Even if consumers could not see the Apple logo on the small display of their mobile phone when they looked at the advertisement, the Senate assessed that it would not harm Iglo: “The sale of canned fish via mobile phones is likely to be a completely unusual sales channel,” said the judge .
Serving breaded fish since 1966
Captain Iglo has been advertising in Germany since 1985, and in his home country Great Britain as Captain Birdseye since 1966. A problem for the judges: the captain has undergone many transformations over the decades, and the Senate was unclear which of the numerous captains ns is said to have hurt the competition.
According to this, at most a specific design could be protected under competition law, but not a general idea of the figure. “We have about 500 pictures of Captain Iglo on file,” the presiding judge said. “An imitation presupposes that one knows the original. We want to know: What is the original?”
The law firm commissioned by Iglo finally named the former embodiment of the captain by British actor Mark Fletcher, who was replaced by an Italian in 2018, to the annoyance of patriotic Britons. The captain is a middle-aged, European-looking, white-grey bearded man with three “core characteristics” who wears a blue suit with a white turtleneck and a blue sailor’s cap.
Elegant three-piece suit instead of sailor’s clothing
The competing Appel character poses on the shore, also wearing a beard and cap, but according to Appel does not represent a sailor. A key difference is that the Appel character wears an “elegant three-piece suit” rather than a sailor’s outfit. “The person seems to spend more time on the beach in their free time,” the chairman noted.
The lawyer commissioned by Iglo referred to an online survey, according to which the distinguished Appel-Herr in his three-part set is actually misidentified by many consumers: “Captain Iglo is always and only seen in this figure. That’s just this bearded one Man you know from TV and advertising.”
Although Munich is far from the North Sea coast, the courts of the Bavarian state capital are known among lawyers for their expertise in competition law.
Source: Nachrichten
