Growing up, my mother often referred to Sylvester Stallone as someone I should look up to. She would say “He wasn’t born a RAMBO, kids had picked on him at school and necessity taught him to stand up for himself.” Decades have passed, and when one thinks of Rambo, immediately the 80’s come back to mind – his bad hair, his sleeveless shirts, and of course his remarkable attribute to stand up and fight for justice. Little did I know that in 2021, I would come face-to-face with Rambo at work from our office in Herzliya.
Carolina Lemke, a successful Israeli-based eyewear company with over 70 global kiosks and branches is a long-time client of our firm. One of Carolina Lemke’s well-known trademarks is the unique design of their kiosk, which resembles a luxury passenger cruise ship:
Recently, it was brought to Carolina Lemke’s attention that a Chinese manufacturer of kiosks, was making use of their name and trademarks. On further investigation our firm was led to a Rambo! His website and social media accounts offered imitations of many familiar brand name sales displays, including the famed Carolina Lemke kiosks. These kiosks were sold “as is” and even bore the Carolina Lemke name.
Eran Soroker and Robert Dorneanu from our litigation team drafted a cease-and-desist letter to Rambo on behalf of Carolina Lemke. The letter demanded that Rambo refrain from using Carolina Lemke’s intellectual property rights immediately and cease all sales of the infringing kiosks.
In the letter, it was emphasized that the manufacturers infringed upon Carolina Lemke’s designs and trademarks. The use of confusingly similar kiosks seemed intentional, as they intended to mislead consumers, making them believe that they are buying original Carolina Lemke kiosks intended for the sale of original Carolina Lemke goods.
Rambo was quick to respond. He apologized and confirmed that he will remove the infringing kiosks from his websites and stop selling the Carolina Lemke displays.
Our team followed up to ensure that Rambo acted to remove all references to Carolina Lemke from his website and social media, and duly advised our client that we had been successful.
This round: a knockout for SANLAW!