On Wenesday 11th June 2008, when this page was at www.bifidusactiregularis.com, this site was contacted by lawyers representing Danone. They demanded that the domain name bifidusdigestivum.com was given to them within eight days or they would pursue full legal action. Among their comments were that this site could be mistaken as being owned by or affiliated with Danone (very, very unlikely), and that this site is gaining a competitive advantage by using one of Danone’s Trademarks (untrue as it does not sell yoghurt and has no advertising on it – this site makes no money). Danone were offered a place to comment on what Bifidus Regularis, Actiregularis, Digestivum, Essensis etc. are, and also to comment on the language and imagery used in their advertising. No reply has been received, but this site will be updated as and when this happens.
Update : 29th July 2008
Danone chose not to make a comment on their products. After negotations with Danone’s lawyers it was agreed that the domains be given to Danone due to clear legal precedent in trademark law. The site has been moved to bifidobacteriumanimalis.com as this uses purely scientific taxonomy – therefore it is not, and cannot become, a trademark of Danone. The lawyers also asked this site to make a number of undertakings such as not talking about their products again. Because this site is not set up to denigrate Danone, explicitly states that it is not in any way affiliated with Danone, and does not gain any commercial advantage from association with Danone’s products, these undertakings were not given.
Update: 3rd January 2010
The site has been moved again, this time to whatisbifidusregularis.org – it was felt that because this is a question, and because there is a prominent disclaimer about the site not begin affiliated with Danone / Dannon, this could in no way lead to confusion that the site was benefitting in any way from the trademark.
Comments
I really like the way the “Active Ingedient” has changed through the years as to give a sense of there being a top secret lab somewhere of which has the top scientists from around the world concucting some fabulous food that is so amazing and then someone tweeks it to bring it to perfection.
If there was some sort of way of banning adverts that have an amazing way of trying to fix something that isn’t broken by just putting a sticker on the packet and saying “hey … Our product has a sticker on it! Thus prooving its an all round better product” I would ban them in a blink of an eye.
Awesome site by the way. Really like the whole idea and its a shame that companies have such a grasp on the right to freedom of speech when it comes to these things. Oh well thats pride (money) for ya!
Posted by Joe Sharman on 23rd February 2010
I agree completely…I found your website after a websearch for “bifreg” specifically wishing to see if anyone has taken the effort to debunk this clearly fabricated name for what is a natural organism (which already HAD a name). They truly are dumbing down for a specific audience whom they obviously do not credit for having the intelligence to understand the facts. Marketing professionals are usually guilty of slanting the message in their product’s direction by creating some method (fabricated or otherwise) to prove their product’s superiority. I cringe every time I hear that famous spokesperson say the word.
Posted by Dansworld on 12th February 2010
I like the product but, I agree the bifidus word they made up is insulting and is a talking down to people that want to trust the company. Treating people as uneducated and selling a common product with a fancy name. Sadly the product tastes really good. Wish they could just sell it as good tasting yogurt, which is all it is.
Posted by Donna on 8th February 2010
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