Iceland Challenges Iceland U.K. Supermarket Chain Over Name
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The government of Iceland is taking legal action against the U.K. supermarket chain Iceland Foods, arguing that its appropriation of the country’s name has caused harm to local businesses.
In a statement on Thursday, the Foreign Ministry in Reykjavik said it would ask the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EU-IPO) to “invalidate this exclusive registration on the basis that the term ‘ICELAND’ is exceptionally broad and ambiguous in definition, often rendering the country’s firms unable to describe their products as Icelandic.”