CHEEKY CLUCKERS
Chicken shop accused of copying by Nando’s forced to change its name a SECOND time by another angry restaurant
Fernando’s in Reading was threatened with legal action by Nandos after accusations of stealing its brand
A CHICKEN shop accused of copying by Nando's has been made to rebrand a SECOND time by another angry takeaway.
Fernando’s in Reading was threatened with legal action by the peri peri giant after accusations of stealing its brand last year.
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But within months of boss Asam Aziz, 43, changing his restaurant to 'Fernandez', a rival takeaway in Leicestershire started spitting feathers.
Fernandez Grillhouse threatened to sue Asam unless he made appropriate changes immediately.
SPITTING FEATHERS
Recounting his conversation with the rival owner to , Asam said: "You're 200 miles away in Leicestershire. If anything, you've gained from the publicity that we've achieved, hence why you've heard of me, cus [sic] I've never heard of you. You know, just let it go.
"He says 'no', you've got to change your name, otherwise I'm going to be contacting my solicitors."
Fernandez Grillhouse swiftly sent a letter to Asam with an intellectual property notice.
You're 200 miles away in Leicestershire. If anything, you've gained from the publicity that we've achieved, hence why you've heard of me, cus [sic] I've never heard of you.
Asam Aziz
The restaurateur decided to admit defeat and named his restaurant Manzano's.
It’s not all doom and gloom for Asam though, with the possibility of franchises on the horizon.
He said: “We went back to the drawing board, we did our complete due diligence this time, made sure there's nothing of the sort again, and we decided to call it Manzano's Peri Peri."
NANDO'S BATTLE
Asam's first grilling came back in March last year when Nando’s accused him of trying to mimic its iconic cockerel and chilli images.
But the business owner said he was “aghast” at the claims and had been influenced by the ITV show Take Me Out.
He claimed the real reason Nando’s was targeting him was because Fernando’s chicken was “better than theirs (Nando’s)".
Speaking at the time he explained: “We wanted to sell peri peri chicken, being of Portuguese origin, we use the chicken which I believe is a Portuguese chicken and the name Fernando’s is a Portuguese name, it’s also a place which is famous from TV show Take Me Out.”
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In the end he relented and changed his brand – but vowed to keep his recipes the same.
A Nando’s spokesman said: "We are really proud of our brand and we know it means a lot to our customers. That’s why whenever we think there is trademark infringement we try to sort it out amicably.
"We have asked this restaurant to re-brand because we believe it is trying to benefit from some of things that make us who we are – our menu, logo and even our name."
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