Singhsbury's renamed Morrisinghs after Sainsbury's 'legal row'

[dutchman]

A shopkeeper who claimed he was threatened with legal action after calling his shop Singhsbury's has changed its name to Morrisinghs



Jel Singh Nagra's shop had no name for five years after he said Sainsbury's complained, The Northern Echo reported.

He has now put up a new sign naming his store Morrisinghs, in a bid to put his village of West Allotment, North Tyneside, "on the map".

A spokesman for Morrisons said the supermarket "did not mind".

"Mr Nagra and his customers obviously have good taste so we wish him well," he added.



Mr Nagra, who commutes 50 miles from Stockton to the shop in Benton Road, spent £350 on the new sign which he said was "a talking point".

"It is just a bit of banter and fun - it's not like we get passing trade - we are not stealing customers from supermarkets," he added.

"Originally when I was away on my honeymoon in 2012, I got a letter saying that Sainsbury's was threatening to take me to court.

"My family saw the letter and took the sign down because they were so worried. My customers kept saying I needed another sign so here it is and it's a bit cheeky."

The shop had already been called Singhsbury's for two years when Mr Nagra took it over from a family member in 2011.

• In a similar case, Singhbury's Local in Aylesbury put its orange sign up, but then removed it when Sainsbury's complained.
  
• In 2010, a former Woolworths store which reopened as Wellworths was forced to change its name because it was using similar sounding branding.
  
• In 2008, a Northampton-based Indian restaurant agreed to change its name from Easycurry after the international business Easygroup threatened High Court action.

[Melisandre]

If this is the only kind of entrepreneurs we have here in this country that has nt even a brain to create an original name for their own shops with out copy cat other business we dont need them they are an embarassment to this country and our education system which has a bad enough reputation as it.

[rebbonk]

I'm surprised that Morrison's have let him get away with that. To my mind, it amounts to 'passing off' and is deliberately misleading.