[HN Gopher] Oatly loses trademark battle against British farm ov...
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Oatly loses trademark battle against British farm over oat milk
Author : vanilla-almond
Score : 37 points
Date : 2021-08-05 21:01 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.bbc.co.uk)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.bbc.co.uk)
| vorpalhex wrote:
| Oatly makes a good product but disappointed to see them trademark
| bullying.
|
| Their ice cream alternative is pretty good too.
| sshumaker wrote:
| I used to think that. Then I started wearing a continuous
| glucose monitor (levels) for longevity reasons. Holy crap, a
| latte with Oatly spikes my blood glucose like crazy compared to
| whole milk. There's way more sugar in there vs fat and it
| really causes a strong insulin response. That isn't the kind of
| thing you want to be consuming long term.
| Wohlf wrote:
| A good rule of thumb is low fat = high sugar and vice versa.
| spotman wrote:
| Yes agreed. Oatly is horrible for you. It's one of the worst
| Oat milks they sell in my store. (when comparing by nutrition
| facts).
|
| It is so bizarre this alternative milk that goes around. I am
| totally onboard with finding an alternative to save cows from
| inhumane practice, however, very little of the alternative
| milk that is out there is anywhere near as healthy as normal
| milk.
|
| Meanwhile anyone can produce any type of alternative milk and
| people think they are buying health food.
| FairlyInvolved wrote:
| They sort of have to, you can't selectively enforce trademarks
| like you can with other IP
| simonswords82 wrote:
| Well in a sense yes but also they can pick and choose their
| targets more carefully.
|
| For starters - PureOaty sounds nothing like Oatly. Secondly,
| it's made on minuscule scale at one farm from what I can make
| out.
| setr wrote:
| I don't think size matters for this kind of thing -- if
| they grow, and you didn't enforce action when they were
| small, you don't have much claim when they're large (and
| the violation is worth more, and they're more established
| in it, and they've built more of a brand around it).
|
| but yeah Oaty vs Oatly might have been reasonable but
| PureOaty is quite the stretch
| function_seven wrote:
| No they don't. This is a common myth when it comes to cases
| like this.
|
| If the defendants had been selling their product with the
| exact same name, or ripping off their logo directly, then you
| have a point.
| zinekeller wrote:
| >> No they don't. This is a common myth when it comes to
| cases like this.
|
| This is the UK, where digital reproductions of public
| domain documents do get a copyright. While I agree they
| overstep here (especially that a regular customer would see
| the two products differently), IP laws in UK are much more
| sensitive with these issues.
| simonswords82 wrote:
| My exact thoughts, my wife and I have been fans of Oatly for a
| time. It's the only oat milk I've tried that tastes somewhat
| like cow's milk.
|
| I always felt their branding and overall approach was on point
| which makes this quite out character and a total dick move on
| their part.
| octodog wrote:
| Try Vitasoy oat milk if that's available. Easily my favourite
| brand and much cheaper than Oatly (in Australia at least).
| 3327 wrote:
| Oaty is spelled differently too.
|
| Total dick move indeed.
| INTPenis wrote:
| They're also partly owned by the state-owned China Resources
| holdings company.
|
| That said, I still buy their products regularly. And I'm proud
| they started in my home town.
| anu7df wrote:
| Indeed. The only oat milk or for that matter any non-milk milk
| that I like in my coffee. I don't see the similarities at all
| in the branding or packaging. Like oatly, glad they lost.
| ajmurmann wrote:
| Have you tried the Chobani Extra Creamy? I now like it even
| better than Oatly.
| lucb1e wrote:
| Expensive though, at least in Germany it's twice the price of
| normal milk and they don't even have to hold cows. I understand
| it's also a smaller market but still, I wonder if this is
| really warranted. It also won't help less determined consumers
| switch away from dairy products, though luckily there are
| knock-off brands that also taste nearly the same.
| ajmurmann wrote:
| Cow milk is also highly subsidised in the EU and sold at
| closer to zero margin because of the high control over the
| market relatively few retail chains have, especially in
| Germany.
|
| Oldy but goody: https://www.kuechenstud.io/kuechenradio/episo
| de/kr_121-milch...
|
| Edit: obviously we shouldn't subsidize industrial farming and
| its carbon emissions and instead charge for these negative
| externalities. We are all paying for this cheap milk
| consumption with our climate.
| vanilla-almond wrote:
| I'm glad that Oatly lost the court case. The name and packing
| design of the other brand looked nothing like the Oatly design.
| It's baffling that Oatly even took this matter to court.
|
| It's interesting that fresh, pasteurised cow's milk is
| _cheaper_ than a carton of oat milk which is approximately 90%
| water + oats and thickeners. Almond milk is even worse:
| approximately 95-97% water + 2-3% almonds and thickeners.
| knuthsat wrote:
| When it comes to price, that's what government subsidies do
| for the cow's milk and high demand does for the oat milk.
| Although, I've seen Temple Grandin's methods live and a milk
| farm with milking robots basically runs itself (all cows just
| walk to the robot to be milked and the robot finds the teats
| with a bit of computer vision).
|
| But yes, other than a good soy milk, most of plant-based
| milks are just empty calories.
| barrkel wrote:
| Well, the Oatly Barista Edition matches cow's milk for
| nutritional content surprisingly closely - fat,
| carbohydrate, vitamins, minerals and so on. We give it to
| our toddler, who's allergic to cow's milk protein.
| arthurcolle wrote:
| Tell me more about the milking robots fellow traveler, I
| need some entertainment after 6 hours of meetings today.
| robbedpeter wrote:
| Milkbots and the teat detectors were great opening for
| Metallica!
| sacred_numbers wrote:
| To be fair, cow's milk is also about 90% water. You're right,
| though, that the ingredient cost using commodity oats and
| rapeseed oil should only be about 4-5 cents per liter. The
| price of cow's milk, on the other hand, is a lot closer to
| the price of the inputs (corn, alfalfa, grazing land, etc.)
| which are about 16 cents per liter.
|
| I'm hopeful that eventually the price of oat milk will
| approach the cost of its inputs, but it might take a while.
| vnchr wrote:
| They are broths, not milks. No teats? No milk.
| elliekelly wrote:
| Milk of magnesia? Almond milk? Coconut milk? They don't have
| nipples, Greg, but I can get milk from them.
| calvano915 wrote:
| Like peanut butter isn't butter. Yet I don't need to hear
| people complain about it whenever nut butter is brought up.
| lurquer wrote:
| And a peanut is neither a pea nor a nut.
| tshaddox wrote:
| Funny enough, it's not nut butter either, because peanuts are
| not nuts. And for that matter, they're not even peas!
| mixmastamyk wrote:
| Love my legume-paste and jelly sammiches!
| function_seven wrote:
| Yes, and tomatoes are "actually" fruits, and peanuts are
| "really" legumes and almond butter is "not really butter."
|
| "Milk" is a fine term for any opaque liquid, white-ish in
| color. Especially when it substitutes well for cow's milk.
|
| Coconut milk, rice milk, almond milk, oat milk, and soy milk
| are well established at this point.
| adtac wrote:
| milk of magnesia!
| function_seven wrote:
| Oh no.
|
| Adding this to your coffee is probably a bad idea. I'm
| going to start a campaign to rename it Broth of Magnesia to
| avoid such mishaps.
| [deleted]
| spoonjim wrote:
| Everybody knows that Oatly doesn't come out of a tit. Nobody is
| being misled.
| lurquer wrote:
| You seriously overestimate the intelligence of the general
| population.
|
| I would wager a sizeable percentage of people don't know that
| dairy milk comes out of a tit.
| tshaddox wrote:
| I don't think being ignorant of something widely known
| counts as being misled.
| DavidVoid wrote:
| What about coconut milk? That has been called milk for more
| than a century. Should we start calling it coconut broth
| instead?
|
| Restricting the use of the word milk to mammal products is
| silly imo. From a consumer standpoint it makes sense to call
| milk alternatives _< substitute>_ milk (e.g., soy milk, oat
| milk, etc.) to make it clear to the consumer that they can use
| it as an alternative to regular cow milk.
| jfengel wrote:
| Headline has been slightly altered (or A/B tested). The original
| headline is "Glebe Farm", rather than "British farm".
|
| That original headline is also slightly misleading, since it's
| really "Glebe Farm Foods", which is a manufacturer as well as a
| grower. It's not an enormous corporation; I saw an estimate of
| its revenue at $7 million.
|
| But this headline has already prompted one remark that suggested
| this was about the "milk" part. It's not. It's one manufacturer
| suing another over the name of their oat milk.
| uxcolumbo wrote:
| Really disappointed in them.
|
| How is Glebe Farm Foods [0], a small business, a threat to Oatly?
|
| If Oatly really cared about sustainability then they'd
| congratulate a small producer joining the oat drinks industry...
| also an opportunity to generate positive PR, i.e. not doing
| business as usual etc.
|
| This stunt just turned me off their brand.
|
| I think consumers are clever enough to differentiate between
| Oatly or PureOaty.
|
| [0] https://www.glebefarmfoods.co.uk/about-us/
|
| Edit: clarity.
| ajmurmann wrote:
| In essence companies are forced to be litigious about their
| trademark. If they don't defend them or become generic the
| trademark is lost. Even if Oatly believes that there is little
| to no risk in consumers confusing PureOaty, this might become a
| liability in future lawsuits
| uxcolumbo wrote:
| Thanks for clarifying, but they have no case here - even the
| judge agrees.
|
| Would be interesting to know what they've actually
| trademarked? That no other brand can use a shade of blue on
| their packaging when selling oat drinks?
|
| I can understand if Glebe Farms called their product Oaty,
| but they called it PureOaty - doesn't even start with the
| same letter and their packaging looks different, not as
| polished as Oatly's packaging.
|
| Edit: In the BBC article they claimed the 'y' is the
| offender. But oaty is an adjective, hence the name PureOaty
| to create a product name.
| zamalek wrote:
| > [Article] A spokeswoman for Oatly said the company would
| not be appealing the decision.
|
| Oatly clearly agrees, too. The judge declared their
| brand/trade dress safe.
| Danieru wrote:
| > I think consumers are clever enough to differentiate between
| Oatly or PureOaty.
|
| I wouldn't. It took me a double take to notice the missing l,
| and that's with your sentence priming me to see a difference.
| In the store I might ponder on why the pure version existed.
|
| Seeing them both in a store I'd have expected PureOatly was the
| unflavored version.
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(page generated 2021-08-05 23:02 UTC)