Harrods orders Essex cafe to rebrand

World-renowned department store Harrods, has ordered an Essex café to change its signage as it’s too akin to the luxury retailer’s signs.

Owners of Hollands Café were presented with a letter written by Harrods lawyers, accusing them of copyright infringement with regards to their branding. Using the same font as the iconic store, the café’s owners were told that their gold exterior sign was too similar to the Knightsbridge retailers logo.

Nigel Holland, co-owner of the roadside café in Rivenhall, Essex, commented to The Sun that changing the establishments branding would force them out of business, saying: ”We would have to change our logo, the menus, the signs and the website – it would total up to £14,000 and would put this small new business, out of business.”

Likening the battle to that of ”David and Goliath,” Mr Holland said that the case was ”absolute rubbish, bizarre and causing [us] a lot of problems and worry.”

Hollands Café opened in January, with its signage style attributed to the way Mrs Hollands writes her name, according to her husband. Speaking to The Telegraph, the husband and wife team said: ”At the end of the day we are a roadside restaurant – how we are associated with a Knightsbridge store is beyond us.”

Nevertheless, the pair have been ordered to change their branding by the end of this month or face hefty legal action. In response to the letter, Harrods Corporate Affairs Manager, Hannah Hodges, commented: ”Examination of the Hollands Café Lounge sign will reveal the script is extremely similar to our copyrighted Harrods logo and could, therefore, wrongly suggest some association between our organisations.”

”Whilst we recognise that Hollands Café Lounge is a very different organisation to Harrods, we feel and appropriate that they should take some simple steps to remedy the copyright infringement.”