Japanese Company Copied & Trademarked a S’pore Brand & Japaneses Are Supporting the S’pore Brand

By
Wilson Xie
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I love my Tiramisu Hero tiramisu.

Correct me if I’m wrong, I don’t think there was anybody who brought tiramisu, the classic Italian dessert, to the Instragm-worthy level that it is now prior to Tiramisu Hero.

Located at 121 Tyrwhitt Road, Tiramisu Hero has been serving up jars of their signature delightful dessert to the adoring public since 2012.

They were so original that they allowed “customization of alcohol content, sweetness and wetness levels for the tiramisu recipe” according to their website.

Image: thetiramisuhero.com

Hero’s Produced by Tiramisu (HPT)

Originality though, doesn’t happen to be Hero’s Produced by Tiramisu (HPT) strong suit.

If you can’t tell, HPT, a store selling tiramisu in Japan, appears to have taken the phrase “emulation is the best form a flattery” to a whole-new, law-breaking level.

Image: Mothership/Yorimichi Kyoto

Left: Tiramisu Hero
Right: Hero’s Produced by Tiramisu

Grams, the people behind Hero’s Produced by Tiramisu (HPT) attempted to register multiple trademarks of Tiramisu Hero in 2017 and even tried to to file a direct copy of one of Tiramisu Hero’s images.

HPT allegedly contacted Tiramisu Hero’s Japanese partners via a lawyer to impose a stop work order, and even threatened to sue their Japanese branch, according to Tiramisu Hero’s founder and director, Aileen Koh and Peggy Chang, in response to Mothership’s media queries.

If you can’t tell, their logo has clearly put the Capital C into Copy(right) down the the cat, mask and cape.

Shows and Media

This tussle has garnered so much attention in Japan that there has even been talk-show video segments dedicated to it.

Here’s one:

And another:

Interestingly, and according to Mothership, the video segment touched on “the disparity in timings the brands were established” with Tiramisu Hero being established in 2012 and HPT in June 2018.

Mothership shared too that Tiramisu Hero had set up booths as early as 2013, in Japan, and pointed out that the “hosts expressed incredulity that one did not take, at the very least, inspiration from the other.”

This despite HPT employing the help of big-named celebrities to bolster their street-cred and credibility.

One of them -Miura Shohei

Japanese Supporting a Singaporean Brand and boycotting theirs

Funnily though, even though Japanese worldwide are known for their patriotism, it would appear that this case has appealed more to their sense of human decency than it has a flaming passion for anything Japanese.

Image: Telegraph.co.uk

A tweet calling out HPT’s unethical behaviour has till date garnered over 57K retweets and 38K likes.

Here it is:

In fact, both Aileen and Peggy shared that “People have chosen to boycott the copycats and our product in Japan is sold out” and that “they received phone calls from Japanese fans apologising on behalf of the company’s actions” according to Mothership.

What’s Now and Next?

It now appears that public pressure has forced Gram to reconsider their previously-stubborn stance on the trademark.

Image: Mothership

That said, Tiramisu has stated in this post that the legal issues are apparently still ongoing and thanked both Japanese and Singaporean supporters while vowing to continually  “pressure the wrongdoers and to call them out.”

While I’m no legal expert, I’m pretty hopeful that this tussle will end up in Tiramisu Hero’s favour because duh.

HPT is clearly and downright-ly a Tiramisu Hero rip-off.

There, I’ve said it.

In any case, should any of our readers like to take this food fight to Japanese streets, be sure to get your tiramisu fill from Tiramisu Star in Japan, for that is what Tiramisu Hero is currently called there.

And please, don’t ever, buy from Hero’s Produced by Tiramisu.

If not.

Image: knowyourmeme.com

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Wilson Xie
Email: [email protected]