Big brands surely deal with imitators a lot over the years, but Deliveroo and their latest legal endeavour is a little more unexpected than the usual.
The food delivery service is engaging in legal action with a UK drug dealer who has reportedly mimicked their brand for his own.
“Dispenseroo” is a store on the clear web – aka, not on the dark web, on normal Google etc – where one can purchase buds, pre-rolls, edibles and other cannabis-related consumables.
Complete with free shipping and customer service options, the website claims to be the biggest online weed dispensary in the country, with their owner “S” claiming to turn over £25,000 a day in sales.
Deliveroo filed a complaint to request the transfer of the domain name to them, saying in a statement, “Given the obvious and substantive mimicking of our brand, we have lodged a complaint with Dispenseroo’s website registrar and the World Intellectual Property Organisation.”
However, S was quick to clap back in defence of his Dispenseroo brand, telling Lad Bible, ” I mean, they can’t do s*** because they don’t own the copyrights or trademarks in relation to the root elements.
“So, they lost. They don’t copyright that colour code, they don’t copyright that open-source font, either, so they really and truly took an ‘L’.
“The whole point of Dispenseroo is to be a campaign in essence. We want to create a wide initiative where we support people with cannabis-based treatments for their needs.
“However, we stand by our mission and our beliefs. Even in history, social movements of any nature have come under scrutiny, and cannabis legalisation across the medical and recreational market is something we believe in. I guess, to make a standpoint you have to do something.”
Whilst it will be curious to see how this case evolves, particularly given that the store is selling a Class B drug, it’s interesting to see the stance Dispenseroo is taking.
[Image via Dispenseroo website]