dogs<\/a> were happy to be in their natural environment and the stress associated with toilet time melted away because the dogs knew instinctively where to do their business,\u201d Ms Sloan claimed.<\/p>\n\u201cWouldn\u2019t it be great if we could replicate the outdoor experience indoors? Piddle Patch was born from that desire to bring a natural dog toilet solution into the home.\u201d<\/p>\n
Piddle Patch is a biodegradable litter tray with real grass, which allows pooches to urinate indoors without making a mess while being housetrained.<\/p>\n
Ms Walker-Fooks said she also came up with her own \u201creal grass\u201d indoor dog toilet \u2013 known as \u201cOui Oui Patch\u201d \u2013 after experiencing the \u201cstress and anxiety\u201d of housetraining her dog, Tinkerbell.<\/p>\n
![\"Laurencia](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/LaurenciaWalkerFooks2cap.jpeg\")
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open image in gallery<\/p>\n
Laurencia Walker-Fooks, director of indoor dog toilet makers City Doggo Ltd (Supplied by Champion News)<\/p>\n
\u201cWith our real grass pet potties, toilet training my second pup, Bambi, took half the time and half the effort,\u201d she says in her own marketing materials.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe knew the only place she was supposed to relieve herself was on grass from the day I got her.\u201d<\/p>\n
The two women ended up going head to head after Ms Sloan, through her company Makeality Limited, accused Ms Walker-Fooks and City Doggo of infringing on the Piddle Patch trademark.<\/p>\n
The words had been used on online marketing materials for the Oui Oui Patch, while domain names using the words had been bought and directed traffic to Ms Walker-Fooks\u2019 site.<\/p>\n
The words appeared in website source code, landing page titles and blog posts, while two of the Piddle Patch domain names were purchased by City Doggo within three days of Ms Sloan\u2019s Dragons\u2019 Den appearance.<\/p>\n
In court, Ms Walker-Fooks admitted using the words, but said it was only for search engine optimisation and also so minor that it was \u201cnot actionable\u201d in trademark law.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/OuiOuiPatchcap-copy.jpeg\")
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open image in gallery<\/p>\n
The Oui Oui Patch indoor dog toilet, designed by Walker-Fooks (Supplied by Champion News)<\/p>\n
But giving judgment, District Judge Obodai said of Ms Walker-Fooks: \u201cWhen I listened to her give evidence, I gained the distinct impression that she was seeking to persuade the court that she was naive in relation to matters of business and intellectual property. I was not persuaded by her portrayal.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my opinion, she knew exactly what she was doing when she started City Doggo and started what [Ms Sloan\u2019s barrister] Ms Rogers described as, \u2018a campaign of infringement beginning in May 2022.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cI am satisfied from Ms Sloan\u2019s evidence, and I prefer her evidence to that of Ms Walker-Fooks, that the number of infringements, their content and significance and the likely individual and cumulative impact on the trademarks\u2019 function means that the infringements themselves cannot properly be described as negligible or insignificant.<\/p>\n
\u201cI also find that they were not isolated or accidental incidents, but were a deliberate policy to promote the sign in the relevant market.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe defendants clearly and deliberately intended to use Piddle Patch \u2013 and its variations \u2013 to promote their product because of the goodwill associated with the trade mark.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have considered them and I am satisfied and agree that each constituted a misrepresentation to the public that the defendants\u2019 product was that of the claimant or was otherwise associated commercially with the claimant.<\/p>\n
\u201cFurther, I find, based on the answers Ms Walker-Fooks gave during cross examination, that passing off is exactly what she intended when she began her campaign of infringement.\u201d<\/p>\n
The case will now return to court for an assessment of the compensation due to Ms Sloan\u2019s company, although it has already been limited to a maximum of \u00a310,000 by a previous judge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324064,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[156,111,139,69,437],"class_list":["post-324063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Rebecca](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/RebeccaSloanDragons-copy.jpeg\")
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