Yuppie Gadgets beat Yuppiechef in HUGE case at the Supreme Court

For about two years Yuppie Gadgets has been embroiled in a legal battle with Yuppiechef – you know the guys who sell kitchen tools. We beat them at the Western Cape High Court and now Yuppie Gadgets beat Yuppiechef in HUGE case at the Supreme Court.

I am sure that you don’t want me to go on about all the legal bits from the judgment here so let me break it down to you in some simple english. For those of you who want to read the actual judgement, you can do so here. It is a very interesting read.

In November 2013 we received a letter from the attorneys for Yuppiechef threatening legal action for the use of the word “Yuppie”.

Here is an excerpt from the said letter: Our client contends that your use of various marks commencing with the prefix ‘YUPPIE’ amounts to a misrepresentation that is likely to cause consumers to believe you are associated with our client and may cause damage to our client’s reputation. Indeed, our client has already received a number of enquiries asking whether it is associated with ‘YUPPIE GADGETS’.

Yes, we know – Yuppie is a word in the dictionary. And , yes we do know that you guys know the difference between the two websites. To cut an extremely long story short, our attorneys, the lovely folk at Schindlers Attorneys (think the team from Suits – Harvey Spector and the gang) sent out a very lengthy and educational letter back to Von Seidels (think….okay keep thinking, we will have to get back to you on this one) – the guys representing Yuppiechef. Going back to that reply from our attorneys now we can actually see that it came full circle all these years later.

Yuppiechef has registered trademarks and we were registering our trademarks. However what they could never understand is that we registered our marks in a totally different class to them. So the trademarks were an issue. Also apparently the whole of South Africa would be confused when shopping online with our website and theirs. So if you were for example looking for a Kitchen Aid mixer and happened upon Yuppie Gadgets and bought a Parrot Drone then that was a sale that was stolen from them because you know you can mix a mean cupcake mix with a drone. The cherry on the top however was the monopoly of the word Yuppie. Yuppiechef made it very clear that they would not be allowing any companies to have the word Yuppie in their name. Okaaay then….

We were very stunned by this. I mean these guys were a good old fashioned startup. Hell, I even shopped with them when they first started out and continued to do so during the early days at Yuppie Gadgets. The staff kitchen is still filled with crockery, cutlery etc that was purchased from Yuppiechef. You guessed it, I DO NOT SHOP WITH THEM anymore. Thank you MR Price Home, @Home, Woolworths, Home etc, Banks etc.

Here we were, entrepreneurs in South Africa – the land of freedom and a democracy with a vision. We were shaping and building this company around our products which were sourced directly from overseas. Our focus was gadgets, gifts, gizmos, the unusual, fun and quirky. We thought these guys would be the first people to understand that but no they couldn’t and wouldn’t and don’t. At no point in our existence did we ever allude to being associated with them. Our website was totally different. We got a design team to design a logo that fit with our products and started to build our own goodwill and customer base. We love what we do, are crazy about tech, Star Wars and high end gadgets. Yuppiechef attempted to strong arm us into changing our identity because they believe that you the customer might mistake the Yuppie Gadgets website for the Yuppiechef website. These guys even went as far as to say that when one types in “Yuppie” in the google search box and are then faced with the options of Yuppie Gadgets and Yuppiechef (by the way there are other “Yuppie” companies such as Yuppie Cash and Yuppiepet that come up), customers will be confused. Why would anyone be confused when both names are different as well as product offerings? Did they own the word Yuppie? Nice one Yuppiechef. Thumbs up to you for stepping on our South African dream. You say that you are protecting your rights and goodwill but in our opinion that is just the biggest pile of crap ever! All you guys did was be a bully. The kind that strong arms their way. Are you the only people allowed to have a business? What about the rest of South Africa? This country is about building, creating jobs and community.

Sorry about the vent but it has been a long time coming. Back to the case.

After a few months Yuppiechef were back and this time armed with a with a huge file which was their affidavit that they were filing at the Western Cape High Court. The shit just got real! So our legal team, Advocate and directors went into Defcon 5 mode. Eventually we all landed up at the Western Cape High Court. We KOed them!

So they appealed and then we landed at the Supreme Court in Bloemfontein on the 1st September 2016 – Spring day aka Day of Reckoning. Well now we had to battle it out in front of 5 esteemed judges. Screenshots of our website were compared (complaints that there were too many screenshots… someone’s attorneys must refund. Not saying who….). So with Darth Vader, Bruce Wayne, Clark Kent, Walter White, Harvey Spector, Denny Crane, BB8, Luke Skywalker, an educated legal system and kick ass legal team we took them on. By they way, thank you to Bloemfontein for your hospitality – We love you!

Judgement was handed down on the 15th September 2016! Take that Yuppiechef! We at Yuppie Gadgets are so pleased that there is now finality to this matter that was an absolute waste of time and also an interesting experience of bullying. In Yuppiechef’s relentless attack on us we have learned that anything can be overcome with integrity and honesty. So called “Big Companies” cannot bully other companies just because they want to. Whilst writing this I recall a letter sent by them demanding that I sign an undertaking to do certain things and not do certain things if we lost at the Supreme Court. WTF? We hadn’t even had the case yet and did not know what the outcome would be but now we were being bullied into this.

Whilst you have been happily checking out online stores, these are the things are really going on behind the scenes. Yuppiechef never had a case in the first place as both the websites are totally different as well as the trademarks. What is sad today is that an online store chose to be a bully in an industry that is free and open to everyone. As a totally South African owned company, I found it very disturbing that a company with a major American Shareholder – Tiger Global could attempt to bully their way. Guess that didn’t work out so well. Our justice system is made up of smart and no nonsense judges who CANNOT be bullshitted.

We however will go on high kicking our way in bringing you the coolest gadgets and gizmos. By the way Yuppiechef, the next time you guys give another “talk” on e-commerce, don’t forget to tell the audience to look out for guys like you that will want to crush startups.

Update 19 September 2016 – So Yuppiechef has given “their side of the story”. Major eyeroll on our side. Shame, you never meant to bully and just “left” it to your lawyers. Well you did bully! Why didn’t you call us and have a chat over a beer? When reading that blog, I feel like I have hopped into the Delorean of Dr Emmet Brown and transported back to the court room where the exact same baseless arguments were heard. One High Court Judge found no confusion and your poor examples were thrown back. Then 5 judges had to tell you the same thing. Wow! I particularly love the mention of the Purchase Order that was sent to Yuppiechef. Here is the excerpt from the judgement:

PM was an office administrator. She said that she knew Yuppiechef as an online retail store. In September 2013 she prepared a purchase order for 180 Solarmonkey Adventurers at a price of R1 300 each, totalling R234 000. These were gifts to be handed out at an event for a client. The order correctly identified Yuppie Gadgets as the party from whom the goods were to be purchased and included a supplier number that could only have emanated from Yuppie Gadgets. This indicated that there must have been prior communication between her and Yuppie Gadgets. The order contained internal references for the purchaser’s records and accurately set out its delivery address. Notwithstanding all of this and the fact that her email header said that it was a purchase order addressed to Yuppie Gadgets, PM sent the order to Yuppiechef, who pointed out that she had sent it to the wrong address.

Yuppiechef then goes on to say when we renamed Yuppie Gadgets in 2011 that we started selling kitchen and home related goods.

Very similar products from our two companies were appearing next to each other in magazine editorials. The two websites were selling identical products from the same brands.

I would love to see all those identical products. Why weren’t those products or brands mentioned I wonder? Seriously Yuppiechef, stop looking for something that isn’t there. There was never any confusion. You strong armed, became a mean bully and then got beaten up.

Once again, apologies for the vent, but after being quiet for so many years, I just have to do this.

Thank you for reading and goodbye to this little blip or Burnt Out Chef.