Cafe name row ends sweetly | Manawatu-Wanganui News | Local News in Manawatu-Wanganui

Taihape's Brown Sugar Cafe has dropped legal action against a small cafe in Nelson that also used Brown Sugar in its name.

Kara Healey of Nelson told the Chronicle yesterday that the two cafes had come to an "agreement" after she had to "jump through some hoops".

In September last year the Brown Sugar Cafe owners threatened Nelson's House of Brown Sugar with legal action. The Taihape cafe had registered "brown sugar" as a trademark more than 18 years ago.

The owners also said the Nelson cafe's name was damaging their business because it was confusingly similar.

Constraints have been put on Ms Healey as to what she can say about the matter. She has since changed the name of her cafe to The Strawberry Bakehouse.

The Strawberry Bakehouse seated only 10 people at a time, Ms Healey said.

"It has been really stressful, but I can't say how much the legal action has cost us."

Ms Healey said the way trademarking was legally structured, if a person did not have $20,000 to $30,000 to defend an action, there was no pre-mediator.

Ms Healey said she researched the name before she decided on the House of Brown Sugar, and did not know there was a Brown Sugar Cafe in Taihape, but added there were other cafes around the world with the same name.

Brown Sugar Cafe co-owner Lee Thomson was unavailable for comment.