A Christchurch food importer is calling on the public to help re-name the British breakfast cereal Weetabix after a court ruled it was too similar to the Kiwi version Weet-Bix.
A Little Bit of Britain was ordered to cover the word Weetabix after a permanent injunction was granted restricting the sale of the British product in New Zealand.
The decision released by the Christchurch High Court on Tuesday comes after Sanitarium took the store to court over a trademark dispute claiming the British version Weetabix was too similar Weet-Bix.
- Sanitarium wins legal spat against Christchurch food importer
- Ruling likely on Canterbury stores legal spat with Weetbix owner Sanitarium
- Kiwis and fibre: The facts
It was ruled Weetabix can only be sold in specialist UK stores, and the word Weetabix must be covered to protect the Weet-Bix brand.
The product hasn't been on the shop's shelves for over a year.
The shop has since posted on Facebook asking the public for help with new names for the product.
"We have to come up with a new name so we might as well get the customers involved," A Little Bit of Britain shop owner Lisa Wilson told Newshub.
Ms Wilson suggested 'Confuse-A-Brit' or even 'Confuse-A-Kiwi', a light hearted jab at a court issued survey that found 35 percent of people mistook Weetabix as a Sanitarium brand, presumably Weet-Bix.
She says a hundreds of people have put forward new names, suggesting 'everything, the weird and wonderful'.
A lot of suggestions contain the word 'Bix' which is something Ms Wilson will check if it can be used in some way so it doesn't infringe the trademark of Weet-Bix.
She hopes to have new stock of 'Weetabix' under its new pseudonym back on the shelves within a couple of months.
Newshub.
