My Food Bag says 'nein' to global German giant's order to stop saying 'hello'
Nadia Lim, co-founder of My Food Bag.
My Food Bag has rejected German-multinational corporation HelloFresh's threatened legal action over use of the word "hello".
The Kiwi company received a "cease and desist" letter from HelloFresh, telling it to stop using "hello" in marketing My Food Bag's latest product offer called "Fresh Start with Nadia" aimed at people who want to lose weight.
Cecilia Robinson, chief executive and director of My Food Bag, said she had written by post and by email rejecting the claim on the grounds intellectual property rights don't extend to common greetings.
My Food Bag's chief executive, Cecilia Robinson.
HelloFresh threatened to use international law firm Bird & Bird if its demand was not met.
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Sébastien Aymeric, and associate lawyer at James & Wells, said he wouldn't advise HelloFresh to push its claim though the legal channels.
The ingredients for a week of family meals arrives from Nadia Lim's My Food Bag.
He said the issue would arise if someone tried to use the two words as a brand, rather than using the words in some descriptive or general way in a sentence.
"It doesn't mean competitors can't use the words at all," he said.
Similarly, using the word "hello" in an email address was a common generic address, he said.
My Food Bag also uses the word "hello" at the beginning of its email address.
Robinson said My Food Bag had been using "hello" since 2013, about the same time HelloFresh was established, and her company would continue to use it.
The response she sent HelloFresh began, "Kia ora Herr Griesel and Herr Ries.
"Greetings from Aotearoa.
"We don't often get heavyweight German multinational corporations taking the time to write to us Kiwis.
"Ka pai. It's pretty cool that you've heard of our awesome Fresh Start programme down here in NZ.
"What's not cool is you fellas trying to stop us saying "hello" to our Fresh Start family.
"That's not the Kiwi way. In fact we thought you guys must be pulling our leg.
"We're sending you our Hello Fresh Start pack, so you can kick start your health goals and say hello to a new you.
"So in short we've decided 'yeah, nah', and we wish you fellas a good day.
"Otherwise our lawyers, Gumboot & Gumboot are always good for a yarn. They're top drawer red bands.
"Haere rā,
"The My Food Bag Family."
Launched in 2017, Fresh Start with Nadia contains meals of 450 calories or less.
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