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Amanj Ali is the owner of Colorado’s Chicken in Manchester, as well as owning a chicken shop, he was also the owner of the trade mark “Tesla Chicken & Pizza”, which he registered for a new takeaway.
Mr. Ali registered the trade mark in August 2020 in class 43, which relates to food and drink services. During the opposition period, Tesla did not object to the trade mark, this led to the trade mark being registered.
In November 2021 Mr. Ali was notified by the UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) that a company in the USA had filed an application to register the word ‘Tesla’ in class 43. It became apparent that Tesla had requested protection for its international trade marks in the UK in relation to food and drink which includes self service and take out restaurants. Mr. Ali opposed the Tesla trade mark application as he believed that if Tesla register their trade mark then they will attempt to invalidate his trade mark. Despite Mr Ali’s attempt to oppose the trade mark, the Tesla trade mark was registered.
As Mr. Ali predicted, in September 2022 Tesla applied to invalidate his “Tesla Chicken & Pizza” trade mark. Tesla argued that their “Tesla”, registered in 2013, had such an established reputation that Mr Ali’s trade mark would take unfair advantage of it. As part of their case, Tesla stated that they had goodwill in the food and drink industry as their CEO Elon Musk tweeted in 2018 that Tesla has intention to open a restaurant under the Tesla sign. However, UKIPO rejected this argument as there is no law for “anticipatory goodwill”.
During proceedings, Mr Ali said that representatives on behalf of Tesla offered him £750 to sell the rights of the “Tesla Chicken & Pizza” trade mark to Tesla in May 2022. Mr. Ali rejected the offer and claims that he joked with his solicitor that only ‘£750,000’ would be sufficient for him to sell his trade mark. Mr. Ali’s solicitor relayed this information to Tesla’s representatives as a matter of fact that only £750,000 would be enough for Mr. Ali to sell the rights to his trade mark. Tesla used this information to successfully argue that Mr. Ali acted in bad faith.
The UKIPO decided in favor of Tesla and invalidated Mr. Ali’s trade mark. In addition to the ruling, Mr. Ali has been ordered to pay Tesla £4,000 as well as £8,000 of his own legal fees after the 18 month legal battle concluded.
Despite the defeat, Mr. Ali has said that he does not hold a grudge towards the worlds richest man.
He stated that “I’m the type of person that I don’t have any hate against anyone. I am too busy to hate people.”
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