My Food Bag breaks out the slang to tell-off German multinational their legal threat 'not the Kiwi way'

June 25, 2018

Kiwi company My Food Bag has playfully, but defiantly, told a German multinational organisation just where to go, after they issued a legal letter to the home delivery food service over their use of the word "hello".

The German food delivery service HelloFresh sent a letter through their legal team at the firm Bird & Bird requesting My Food Bag to stop using the phrase "Hello Fresh" in any of its publicity or branding.

The Kiwi company had used the headline "Hello Fresh Start The Program" on its website and, the German company, who's name is contained in that phrase, objected to it.

A section of the cease and desist letter from firm Bird & Bird said: 

"HelloFresh SE is the sole and unrestricted owner of the word mark 'HelloFresh' inter alia in New Zealand with respect to goods and services... We are therefore exclusively entitled to use the word mark 'HelloFresh' to label our goods and services and to prevent others from using our word mark or descriptions materially similar to our word mark," said the legal letter from the firm.

But the light-hearted response the German multinational received from My Food Bag may end up being lost on them in the humour department.

The letter from My Food Bag in full reads:

Kia ora Herr Griesel and Herr Ries, Greetings from Aotearoa. We don't often get heavyweight German multinational corporations taking the time to write to us Kiwis. Ka pai. It's pretty cool that you've heard of our awesome Fresh Start programme down here in NZ. What's not cool is you fellas trying to stop us saying "hello" to our Fresh Start family. That's just not the Kiwi way. In fact, we thought you guys must be pulling our leg?! Down here in God's Own, all of us have the right to say hello, kia ora or g'day. Just ask Winston. It sounds like something is weighing on your mind, so we're sending you our Hello Fresh Start pack, so you can kick start your health goals and say hello to a new you. So in short we've decided "yeah, nah", and we wish you fellas a good day. Otherwise our lawyers, Gumboot & Gumboot, are always good for a yarn. They're top draw red bands. Haere rā , The My Food Bag Family  

Speaking to NZ Herald, MyFoodBag founder Cecilia Robinson described the cease and desist letter from HelloFresh as "bizzare".

She added the legal request from HelloFresh would be the same as My Food Bag attempting to stop other companies from using "my" in thier names. 

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