An Eye for An Eye and… IP Struggles for the Short-Sighted

There’s constantly some battle going on… between good and evil, light and darkness, right and well… rights-holders.

Right now, Croatian headlines are bombarding us with an unexpected bang in the Croatian IP sky that nobody actually expected. And yes – it’s a big one.

What happened?

Mario Mandarić, a famous Croatian chef, has recently announced that he’s been the owner of the Kult Plave Kamenice i Plava Kamenica trademarks for a while now. Congrats, Mario? Well, yes, but – it’s not that simple.

The two now-protected names have been long in use by Davor Butković, a journalist and critic, who’s used them for his well-known gastronomy portal.

The two protagonists in this story have had a long-standing beef which now took an unexpected twist with a tactically brilliant, though totally diabolical, move from Mandarić.

How, and more importantly – why on earth did this happen?

On the one hand, Mandarić claims that he was not motivated by the negative critiques he’s been getting from Butković since 2019, apparently without him even tasting any of his dishes, but rather by wanting to prove that Butković is incompetent to do his job. Meaning, Mandarić argues, if Butković lacks the basic business acumen to protect the name he’s been using for years, what makes him competent to give professional reviews for anyone else’s business?

Also, it’s probably worth mentioning here that Plava Kamenica is notorious for some truly harsh critiques.

Anyway, this whole mess raises not only the question that Mandarić asked, but also many, many others regarding IP, trademarks, right of use, ethics, and so on.

What happens next?

Obviously, it’s not that simple, as it never is.

Butković can now challenge the trademark registration, prove it’s been done in mala fide, negotiate a co-existence, license (his own) brand (sic), or even rebrand, to name a few options. All of which are about as absurd as someone snatching another person’s “name” just to prove a point.

However, if Butković decides to take any legal action, which he most likely will, it becomes a matter of who has more money, time, and will to stomach this insane pissing contest around food. (Yuck!)

Why should you care?

This reminds me of a song that came up in an lovely chat I had yesterday, which, among other things, says: “And I’m for ‘if you don’t like it, can’t you just let it pass?’”

Which ties me back to the beginning of the story.

We all have free will to choose what we do, and how we do it. And by exercising that free will, we inevitably affect the world around us and beyond. Our actions ripple across other people’s lives whether we are aware of it or not.

We can choose to leave a bad review, or we can let it pass. We can use harsh words, but we also have the power to be kind. And being kind is returned in kind. Which kind of makes the world a better place, doesn’t it?

So, anyway… if we’re constantly and willingly choosing to do things the other way, perhaps then we shouldn’t be surprised when karma pays us a visit and bites us… well… you know the rest.

Bon appétit! 😉