He said Chicken Inn also wants Chicken Slice to stop using
the word “Luv” in their payoff line.
This follows a three-year legal battle between the two
fast-food companies, in which Chicken Inn, a subsidiary of Simbisa Brands,
filed an application at the High Court in 2019 seeking an interdict against
Chicken Slice using what it termed its trademarks.
Chicken Inn argued that the latter had used “Luv” in its
burger and grill logo.
The company also argued it had always used “Luv Dat
Chicken” since 1987 before Chicken Slice started using “I Luv it” on its burger
boxes.
High Court judge Justice Sylvia Chirawu-Mugomba last month
dismissed the application by Chicken Inn.
“There was no case. The idea here is about bullying,”
Mutyebere told NewsDay yesterday.
“Where on earth would one be not allowed to use the word
luv? Love is not a coined word, it’s generic — whether you use the word love or
luv. The word Luv is actually in the Oxford dictionary and, therefore, you
cannot say this is my word that I am using.”
He described the attempts by Chicken Inn to stop his
company from using the red and yellow colours as “ridiculous”.
“Where on earth can one say red or yellow is my colour?
That’s ridiculous. You cannot register a colour. In Zimbabwe, if they do not
want to use the colour red, it then means everyone using the colour red must
stop using the colour right from the national flag of Zimbabwe,” he charged.
Mutyebere said Chicken Inn had wasted his company’s
resources fighting “unnecessary” legal battles.
He described this as “tricks of a bully”.
“They are just there to try and frustrate us, but we will
never be frustrated with such kind of poor attacks. You cannot feed Zimbabwe by
yourself.”
Contacted for comment, Simbisa Brands managing director
Warren Meares said they do not consider Chicken Slice as competitors.
“We have got no qualms or animosity with Mr Mutyebere in
any way. If anything, concerning Mr Mutyebere — and you are someone on the
street, wherever we go, he follows. We went to Braeside, he followed, we went
to Walk Tall West End, he followed, Kadoma he followed, we went to Gweru and he
followed, and we were in Bulawayo he followed,” Meares said.”
“When I see him, I stop and have a chat. I don’t have any
qualms with him. If anything, I love the fact that he can become successful,
and competition is good. I see KFC (American global chicken fast-food store,
with outlets in Zimbabwe) more as competition than Chicken Slice. KFC is an
international brand. It is a big name, it is a strong name, which is real
competition. Chicken Slice is our little
brother who is copying us.” Newsday
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