Popular, a well-known bookstore, has recently taken legal action against local online store Hashtag65Singapore for selling “Populist” t-shirts that allegedly infringe on their trademarks and logo.
In a Facebook post on July 21, Hashtag65Singapore shared a screenshot of the cease and desist letter they received from Popular’s solicitors. The post also confirmed that the online store will stop selling the controversial t-shirts in compliance with the request.
The Cease and Desist Letter
Dear Sirs,
“POPULIST” T SHIRTS SOLD BY THE HASHTAG65 WEBSITE
- We are solicitors acting for Popular Book Company (Pte.) Limited.
- As one of the best-known and cherished brands in Singapore, our client takes very seriously the protection of its intellectual property rights including its registered trade marks (copies of which are attached at Annex A) and its copyright works, as well as the very substantial goodwill it has built up over the years through use of its trade name POPULAR and its well-known logo.
- It has come to our client’s attention that T shirts infringing our client’s rights are being sold on the Hashtag65 website for which you registered the domain name. Screenshots of the T shirts being advertised for sale on the Hashtag65 website, Instagram and Facebook account are attached at Annex B. The offering for sale and sale of these T shirts is likely to cause our client serious commercial harm, particularly amongst those who believe contrary to the fact that our client has endorsed or agreed to this use.
- While our client is aware of the recent publicity surrounding use of the word POPULIST/S and has no wish to stop legitimate fun or comment, you will appreciate that it cannot allow this potentially damaging infringement of its rights to continue. We have advised that the way in which the T shirts use the word POPULIST in the same typeface as used for many years by our client for POPULAR, together with a logo that is similar to our client’s registered logo, constitutes passing off as well as trade mark infringement and copyright infringement. We set out below the sign used on the T shirt above our client’s registered trade mark:
Seller’s response
See lah, you guys. We are not endorsed or related to Popular Bookstore (or any other brands if you must know).
We will be stopping the sales of the T-Shirt very soon as requested.
Can’t we all have a better sense of humour?
P.S. We might have gotten served by Popular Bookstore but we will still buy our stationery with you guys because u are still popular to us.
