Global beverage giant Coca Cola is threatening a Wellington café with legal action if it doesn't change its name.
Innocent Foods opened on Willis Street four months ago, selling organic vegan food and cold-pressed juices.
Coca Cola owns the trademark for the United Kingdom-based smoothie and juice brand called Innocent.
Lawyers for the company have written to the café's owner Egemen Yeter, asking that he stops using the word innocent.
"Our client's understanding is that you may be a small business and you may have just started trading. They don't want to be unreasonable, but they do need to protect their own ability to use their Innocent brand in New Zealand, and the exclusivity of that brand," the letter reads.
Cola Cola offers a short trading out period to allow the café to sell its existing stock but first wants to know what stock is on hand, how long it expects to sell it and the sales to date under the name Innocent Foods.
The letter also asked any labels, signage, advertising materials, web pages, or other material bearing the brand Innocent Foods be deleted or destroyed.
Egemen Yeter says considering that his business is "probably making like you know zero point one percent" ... I don't think it's very logical".
He says they looked to see whether the name Innocent Foods was trade marked and there was nothing to indicate it was or was about to be.
Mr Yeter says Cola Cola applied for the trade mark five months before they opened and it was granted just three days prior to opening.
He says because they're a small operator they were holding off on protecting their brand until they had more money behind them.
The café is now hoping that Coca Cola can help them financially with the rebranding.
"We need money for our website, change rebranding signage and everything but they're not being cooperative with us," Mr Yeter told 1 News.
The Coca-Cola Company has responded, maintaining its trademark has been misused.
"We acknowledge that this is an unfortunate situation. Innocent is, however, a global brand of The Coca-Cola Company's, therefore the Company reached out to advise the café in Wellington of the trademark misuse," the company said in a written statement.
"The Coca-Cola Company did take into account the café is a small business so allowed a reasonable period of time for the café to phase out its use of Coke's brand, to minimise the cost and inconvenience to the café."
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