About the IKEA brand
Slogan: Home is the most important place in the world.
Make a home – home.
Improving the everyday life of the majority,
Affordable solutions for a better life,
Not for the rich, but for the wise.
IKEA (IKEA) – founded in 1943 in Sweden, is one of the world’s largest retail chains selling furniture and household goods. And the name “IKEA” itself is an acronym and is deciphered as “Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd”, that is, as the first and last name of the founder and the name of the farm Elmtaryd in the suburb of Agunnaryd, where the owner was born.
Kamprad started trading when he was 5 years old, when he bought matches wholesale in Stockholm and sold them retail in his small town; and then delivered goods personally and sent them by mail (pencils, pens, wallets, frames). And in 1948, furniture appeared in the assortment for the first time, and already in 1958, the first IKEA store was opened in Sweden. The chain of stores began to increase, in 1963 IKEA entered the international market, starting with Norway.
It is interesting that Ingvar Kamprad went down in history not only as a businessman and billionaire, but also as a creepy miser who always dresses at sales, gets everything as cheap as possible, and tries to walk or ride a bicycle whenever possible. He uses a taxi only in the most extreme case, and they say that he never leaves a tip anywhere.
On January 1, 2012, IKEA resold its brand for $11.2 billion, with Interogo, a company registered in Liechtenstein controlled by Kamprad] acting as the seller, and IKEA’s subsidiary company, the Dutch Ikea Systems, acting as the buyer. The purpose of the agreement was to “consolidate and simplify the structure of the business group”, but the opinion in the press was that the meaning of this agreement was that the IKEA brand now has a completely defined value. According to Forbes, the sale of the brand by the Liechtenstein firm to the Hungarian company at market value at the moment was profitable for IKEA: the wholesale business is managed from Switzerland, and the cash register and management company are located in Belgium, in both countries the taxation was very favorable.
A company that owns the largest retail network selling furniture and various home goods. IKEA products are especially popular in Europe. It is believed that in the countries of Western Europe there is not a single house, not a single apartment, where you cannot find something bought from IKEA. And although it is believed that the furniture of this brand is not of very high quality, its availability determines its popularity
To say that Ingvar was a talented businessman is an understatement. It is not by chance that he became one of the richest people in the world with a multi-billion dollar fortune. Having put in a lot of effort, he managed to develop his business. After all, the Second World War did not affect Sweden much. The hostilities took place somewhere aside, without interfering with the everyday life of ordinary Swedes.
The assortment that the company sold was constantly expanding. Mainly at the expense of all sorts of trifles, such as stationery, underwear and household chemicals. The idea to deal with furniture came in 1948. The price of the furniture had to be very low, so that it could be afforded by every buyer with a small fortune. Having considered all this, Ingvar made an agreement with several small manufacturers who began to manufacture furniture to his order. Success came quickly, already in 1951, the businessman opened a small factory, where he began to produce furniture independently. At the same time, he starts printing his first catalog of IKEA products.
We also had to face the first problems. Furniture in those years was not a luxury, but a very expensive commodity. With his actions, Ingvar greatly interfered with other Swedish manufacturers. As a result, competitors succeeded in tricking logging companies into ceasing cooperation with IKEA. Having considered the situation, he began to purchase the necessary components in Poland, winning at the same time also in price. At the same time, the idea was born to simplify the assembly and delivery of furniture as much as possible, making its components prefabricated like a constructor. And although this required some effort on the part of consumers, they remained satisfied, because it became much easier to deliver the purchase to their home, and the price of the product decreased even more.
By the end of the 50s, IKEA stores began to appear all over the country, where you could not only buy furniture and other goods, but also drink a cup of coffee. All stores were larger and were located on the outskirts of the city – this system was “seen” by Ingvar in the American retail chain Cash & Carry.
Today, IKEA is one of the largest retail corporations. Its stores are located in dozens of countries around the world. IKEA employs hundreds of thousands of people. Product catalogs are published in hundreds of millions of copies in various languages. The prices printed in them traditionally do not change throughout the year, regardless of the circumstances. Many IKEA stores operate under the franchise system.
About the violation of IKEA rights
Furniture retailer IKEA has written to British independent video game developer Jacob Shaw about using a store image that resembles a hotspot. The company is asking Shaw to make changes to the unreleased horror game The Store is Closed, which is scheduled for release in 2024. Lawyers representing IKEA claim that the game infringes on trademark rights because some media outlets have drawn comparisons between their official brand and the game.
THE STORE IS CLOSED. CREDIT: ZIGGY.
The Store is Closed is a survival game set in an endless IKEA-like furniture store where the staff attacks when the lights go out at night. Players need to craft weapons and build fortifications to survive and escape. Although the interior of the store where the main part of the game takes place looks like an ordinary furniture store, there are some clear references to the popular brand. The facade of the fictional store bears the Swedish name STYR in the same blue and yellow color scheme as IKEA. This is obviously a tongue-in-cheek spelling of ‘STORE’, which coincidentally is a Swedish word for ‘management’. But IKEA is not a Swedish word – it is the initials of its founder, the name of the farm where he grew up, and the neighboring village. Notably, stores like Tiffany trademark the color they use in their packaging, so in a sense IKEA isn’t exactly new. The negative characters in the game wear shirts with a yellow stripe, similar to the uniform of employees of the Swedish network. The price tags also resemble IKEA price tags.
The game isn’t playable yet, but it can be seen in images on Steam and the Kickstarter crowdfunding platform, where the game is available for pre-order.
Importantly, nowhere in any of the game’s promotional materials, on Steam, during its Kickstarter campaign, anywhere, was the word “IKEA” ever uttered. However, despite this, and despite the fact that the game is not sold anywhere at all, IKEA‘s New York lawyers, Fross Zelnick, wrote a letter to Shaw demanding that he completely change everything in the game that might remind people of their brand.
“Our client has become aware that you are developing a video game called ‘Store Closed,'” the legal letter explains, “which uses characters associated with the famous IKEA stores without our client’s permission.”
Violation that IKEA believes takes place in a video game
The company’s lawyers claim that the game features “a gray carpet on the floor, furniture that looks like IKEA furniture, and pointers that look like IKEA pointers.” But Shaw denies that he designed any furniture with IKEA in mind.
THE STORE IS CLOSED. CREDIT: ZIGGY.
“I bought generic furniture packages to make this game,” Shaw said, meaning they are furniture that can be used in any game for a price. “I don’t know what that means.” In the game, however, there is a gray track on the floor. Stores also often feature signs that tell shoppers where to go.
IKEA‘s argument is that the game infringes on their brand because press sites have created that association, rather than the game itself matching the IKEA name.
One of the headlines reads: “Someone made an IKEA survival horror game set.” Another headline says: “Utility rooms meet Sons of the Forest in new horror game from IKEA.”
These are two titles that can be found, but there are likely more. The letter to Shaw from IKEA lawyers also cites the subheadings of these stories as part of the evidence, and goes on to say that
“In addition, numerous comments from readers of these stories evoke associations with IKEA stores.”
IKEA is a company with $25.4 billion in revenue last year, and Jacob Shaw is some guy from the UK who tried to raise £10,000 ($11,575) on Kickstarter, so Shaw says he has no choice, except to obey. Although he is seeking legal advice, he is sure he will have to capitulate given the costs involved in contesting anything.
Fortunately, IKEA does not show much aggression, as it does not force the developer to completely stop creating the game, does not demand reductions or payments of any kind. Instead, the store simply wants the developer to change these elements so that they no longer look like or are directly based on the real IKEA.
Options for resolving the situation peacefully
The show has 10 days to make all changes or further action will be taken. The developer said that he will fulfill the request.
According to Shaw, he was going to spend the last week of his Kickstarter getting the update ready for all the new alpha testers. But now he is forced to hastily redo the entire appearance of the game in order to avoid being sued.
Jacob Shaw in an interview (for PC Gamer) says that his team has already started implementing changes, but they are worried about the final result. For example, they changed the color blue to red in the design of most of their stores, which made them worry that Target might come after them next. However, Shaw emphasizes that they don’t expect this to slow down the production of the game, but notes that it could cause additional stress for them. Backers of the project on Kickstarter may eventually see an endless big box store that doesn’t look like it was originally promised, but as long as the gameplay and premise of the horror game remains the same, players probably won’t be too upset.
Obviously, trademark owners have a legal duty to protect them so they don’t lose them and their brand doesn’t become well-known. This is presumably part of IKEA’s motivation however excessive it may seem to those unfamiliar with trademark law. Hopefully simply removing the blue boxed building on the menu screen will be enough to get rid of the rest of this nonsense.
Such disputes vividly testify to all of us about the importance of protecting one’s own brand, reputational risks and legal possibilities for protecting the interests of the owner of intellectual property. We always tell all our clients that the most valuable part of any brand is its intangible asset, the formation and evaluation of which our company will help take care of in advance.
