Nigerian Comedian, Chukwuemeka Emmanuel, popularly known as Sabinus, has sued Friesland Foods Wamco Nigeria Plc for unauthorised use of his trademark ‘something hooge’. The suit is worth 1 billion naira.
On May 24, Peak Milk used the popular phrase ‘something hooge’ to advertise their product. However, Sabinus has revealed that the phrase was his registered trademark.
In the legal notice, Sabinus threatened a lawsuit. Which if the brand fails to comply within two weeks from the receipt of the legal notice. The notice read,
“Our client briefed us and we believe the same to be true that your Company, Friesland Foods Wamco Nigeria Plc, used a trademarked slogan ‘Something Hooge’ for the promotion of your Peak Milk product. The advert which was made on the Peak Milk Nigeria verified Instagram page (peak_milk) was posted on the 24th day of May 2022 which was used to promote the Peak National Breakfast Week.”
It continued,
“It will interest you to know that the phrase ‘something hooge’, which was popularised by our client, has been trademarked and legally reserved as his intellectual property by the Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment. The said slogan was trademarked on the 26th of November 2021 with the file number: NG/TM/O/2021/48316. 10. On this note, we make the demand for the payment of the sum of Five Hundred Million Naira (N500m) as compensation for the unauthorized use of the intellectual property belonging to our client.”
It ended,
“And another five hundred million Naira for damages for the trauma; emotional, physical, psychological, and mental trauma our client has suffered for the Trademark theft and infringement of his intellectual property rights.”
Sabinus also demanded a sum of N100m from UAC Foods. This is for the use of his animated image in an advert for the Gala sausage roll. The notice read in part,