He saw a big brand lawyer's logo and potentially tens of thousands in legal fees - and decided instead simply to change his restaurant name. Whether he registered that Tiger Brands was open to a conversation is unclear. Rather than start the process with a civil conversation, which Tiger Brands head of corporate affairs Mary Jane Morifi conceded on The Money Show would have been more constructive, they sent in the big guns to scare the living daylights out of a guy who after a corporate career of 20 years, took the plunge and started his own thing 18 months ago. It claims to have trademarked “Jungle” and was looking to ensure none of its customers would confuse their deli experience with that of one of the strongest brands in the Tiger stable. Tiger Brands admits a letter was sent, but describes it as a letter of invitation to have a conversation with the giant as to whether or not the naming of Veldman’s restaurant conflicted at all with the food manufacturer, which claims to hold some 7,000 trademarks across the world. (Read it fast, and think bilingual, it works better that way.) Turns out his new name is far better: Fork and Fresh. Read more: Oops Woolworse, you did it again! Veldman took legal advice and rather than pick a fight with a R52 billion business, decided on a name change.
The difference between Harbour House Group and Gerald Veldman is that the former has the backing of substantial private equity funds and can choose, if it wants to, to defend its patch. The giant food company has also written to Harbour House Group in Cape Town, which owns the popular beer and pizza joint Tiger's Milk, and asked them for clarity on what they plan to do with the word “Tiger's”. Interestingly, Tiger Brands has not just limited its letter writing activities to little guys.
Its dictionary definition describes it as: ”an area of land overgrown by dense forest and tangled vegetation, typically in the tropics.” It’s also used by Cape Union Mart in some of its K-Way outdoor gear. It's also in the name of a Port St John’s backpackers, a new-ish film starring Harry Potter (aka Daniel Radcliffe), and a favourite climbing frame of most five-year olds. All he did was use a word that appears on the cover of a famous Rudyard Kipling book.
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