{"id":328814,"date":"2026-03-04T18:05:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T18:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/328814\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T18:05:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T18:05:09","slug":"iceland-freezes-decade-long-legal-battle-with-iceland-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/328814\/","title":{"rendered":"Iceland freezes decade-long legal battle with Iceland \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Iceland has abandoned its decade-long trademark dispute with Iceland <\/a>as the frozen food retailer\u2019s boss promises a \u201crapprochement discount\u201d for shoppers in Reykjavik.<\/p>\n

Executive chair Richard Walker said after the supermarket\u2019s third legal loss he would take \u201cthe couple of hundred of grand we would have spent in legal fees in the fourth and final round in the European Union court and reapply that to a rapprochement discount to the good Icelandic people. It\u2019s something I\u2019m going to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walker\u2019s idea of a rapprochement discount will most likely take the form of shopping vouchers to mark the re-establishment of a harmonious relationship between the retailer and the nation.<\/p>\n

The Icelandic government first brought legal action against the UK supermarket in 2016 after accusing it of holding back Icelandic companies from promoting their own goods and services.<\/p>\n

The Icelandic government had never tried to force Iceland to change its name but wanted the retailer\u2019s European trademark for \u201cIceland\u201d cancelled.<\/p>\n

Malcolm Walker, the founder of Iceland Foods, sent a \u201chigh level delegation\u201d to Iceland in 2016 in an effort to soothe tensions and reach an agreement. He argued that his business had registered as a company name in 1970 and \u201ccoexisted with the country called Iceland very happily ever since\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"\"Could Trump\u2019s new global tariff scupper the US-EU trade deal?<\/p>\n

The government took particular issue with groceries being branded \u201cInspired by Iceland\u201d.<\/p>\n

Iceland Foods was only granted a trademark with the European Union in 2014 after several attempts. However, the Icelandic government accused the supermarket of harassing \u201cIcelandic companies and even the Icelandic tourism board\u201d following its attempt to pursue action against companies that used \u201cIceland\u201d in their branding.<\/p>\n

Instead, a legal battle continued with the EU Intellectual Property Office, which invalidated the Icelandic trademark in 2019. It reasoned that the supermarket cannot \u201creasonably trademark the name of a country that has been around since the 9th century\u201d. Iceland appealed but lost.<\/p>\n

The supermarket then took its fight back to court with appeals in Brussels, before the EU General Court ruled against the retailer again last year.<\/p>\n

Walker, Malcolm\u2019s son, said : \u201cWe lost for a third time. We\u2019re going to throw in the towel. It\u2019s actually fine \u2013 we don\u2019t have to change our name.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said his concern was that \u201cother people now have the ability to open shops and call it Iceland and stock Iceland products\u201d.<\/p>\n

The response was in stark contrast to Walker\u2019s previous steely resolve that his family would \u201cvigorously defend Iceland Foods\u2019 intellectual property rights\u201d.<\/p>\n

Walker was recently appointed a Labour peer and the government\u2019s cost of living champion by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer.<\/p>\n

Iceland has eight concessions in Nett\u00f3 stores in Iceland, as well as more than 900 outlets in the UK.<\/p>\n

The Icelandic government did not reply to requests for comment. \u2013 Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Iceland has abandoned its decade-long trademark dispute with Iceland as the frozen food retailer\u2019s boss promises a \u201crapprochement…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":328815,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,62,61,60],"class_list":["post-328814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-iceland","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}