Georgie Pie fan bitten by big guys
BY GREER MCDONALD
Is it fair for McDonald's to stop Verboom Badges using the Georgie Pie brand?
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Verboom Badges store owner Phil Callaghan received a letter from a lawyer acting for McDonald's shortly after increased publicity for the "Bring Back Georgie Pie" campaign in May.
His shop, in the Left Bank Arcade, off Cuba St in Wellington, sells kiwiana badges and T-shirts.
In the letter, intellectual property lawyer Simon Fogarty asked that Mr Callaghan stop making two products which feature a modified version of the Georgie Pie logo.
He agreed, but asked if he could have a "grace period" to sell his remaining 183 T-shirts and 650 badges with the "Bring Back Georgie Pie" logo. "We're this little tiny shop, so I asked if I could have at least till Christmas and they agreed. I didn't expect that," he said.
In the latest letter, received from McDonald's lawyers in mid November, Mr Callaghan was warned not to challenge McDonald's ownership of the trademark, or make any more merchandise bearing the logo.
McDonald's New Zealand managing director Mark Hawthorne said the company acted on its rights as trademark and copyright owner of the Georgie Pie brand.
"We became aware in June that Verboom Badges was selling Georgie Pie merchandise, and just like any other business would, we were concerned to see an external company making use of our intellectual property for their commercial gain."
Mr Callaghan said he did not mind that he could no longer produce the goods with the Georgie Pie logo on it – but only if McDonald's brought Georgie Pie back.
"It's a dormant brand. It hasn't done anything for 13 years," he said.
"There's no such thing [as Georgie Pie], it doesn't exist. They've had it sitting in the bottom shelf.
"[Georgie Pie] is such a positive New Zealand thing ... I hope that if they do bring it back, they blow on the pie first."
Mr Hawthorne would not confirm if the pie fastfood chain was to make a comeback.
"We've been considering how to use the Georgie Pie brand for some time now, and after research are now considering our options and future steps."
The full letter from the lawyer representing McDonald's
- © Fairfax NZ News
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Look its only the menu and most notably the pies that we want back, not the trashy decor or the georgie pie brand, McD's call it whatever you want but just please bring it back, do whatever it takes, incorporate into your menu, rebrand it, charge more than $1 if you must, you cannot say that there isn't a market for it because there definitely is.
Eagle Boys Pizza? Zero Subs?
I ATE ALL THE PIES:)
These tools are going to end up selling out of those shirts they stole the intellectual property from tomorrow because of this article and all of you who are planning to rush out there and buy one because there are not going to be many left. They'll probably double the price of them overnight and turn it into a marketing stunt. And good on them.
Georgie Pie sucked.
Bring back the Pie?? Umm you can get pies at virutally every dairy, service station, bakery, supermarket, grocer and cafe. They are almost without exception better quality than anything Georgie pie ever made.
Its not like theres a big gap in the market here.
This guy is making money off someone else's logo. Look at the rest of his store, ripoff merchant.
Come on McDonalds! Why? If anything you should be encouraging this man to be making t-shirts endorsing the revival of one of your brands.
If they are going to be anything like the reduced size burgers now on sale, they will be 'party pie" size!
Well then they should bloody well introduce Georgie Pie Pie's to their menu then. I had no idea McD's owned Goergie Pie... BRING BACK THE PIES.... "safer communities together" ....
I love Pies - I love McDonalds, can't we all just get along?!
I'm stoked Verboom has sold those T-Shirts, they are funny as, my bro in the UK loves his. People are forgeting its because of him and others that McDonalds are now considering bringing Georgie back to life. Good on ya Verboom i'll be getting another shirt before they get pulled for good.
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I wonder how many of these people jumping on this "bring back georgie pie" bandwagon are actually old enough to remember how horrible it was? We only went there because we were poor teenagers and it was cheap. We all knew it was crap in every way. When they bumped the price up we stopped going and they went under. The pies were gross and the stores were the height of JAFA tacky.