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Trademark dispute over new French bakery chain Copains in Brussels
French bakery chain Copains has plans to come to Brussels, but a bakery by the same name in Wallonia has warned that it plans to protect its brand.
Copains, founded after the pandemic by Giovanni Amico and Baptiste Borne, two former employees of luxury group LVMH, is a gluten-free luxury bakery with 20 branches in Paris and Lyon.
But Walloon chain Copains was founded earlier, in 2020. Specialised in large-scale distribution to various supermarket chains, it sells bread under its own name in various shops in Brussels.
The Belgian bakery registered the Copains trademark at the Benelux level in December 2019 and its owners are not happy that a foreign chain is now trying to operate under the same moniker, worried that Belgian consumers and distributors may be confused by the identical names.
“We own the brand in the Benelux and have already informed them that they are not allowed to use this name in Belgium,” co-chief executive Olivier de Cartier told L'Echo.
“We will respond forcefully and formally oppose this violation of our rights.”
The French chain is planning its first opening in mid-October on the Rue du Marché aux Herbes in Brussels-City. Additional shops would follow in Rue Jean Stas in Saint-Gilles, Chaussée de Charleroi and Place du Châtelain in Ixelles.
It is unclear at this stage whether the French chain will change these plans in response to opposition from the older Belgian bakery.