Popular bookstore issues legal letter to 'populist' t-shirt seller over trademark infringement

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Local bookstore Popular has issued a legal letter to Singaporean clothing store Hashtag65 after it launched a t-shirt taking advantage of a political situation regarding then-speaker of parliament Tan Chuan-Jin.

Earlier this month, Tan issued an apology after he made an inappropriate remark during a parliamentary sitting. In the exchange, which happened after Workers’ Party MP Jamus Lim gave a speech, Tan could be heard muttering an expletive and calling Lim a "populist". Tan's comments were picked up by the microphone and he later apologised for his "unparliamentary language" that should not have been said.

The incident quickly went viral with many meme sites picking the phrase up and making jokes about it. Another brand hoping to capitalise on the issue was clothing store Hastag65 which launched a bright red t-shirt with the word 'populaist' emblazoned on it. However, in its design, it took inspiration from bookstore Popular, a move the bookstore took offense with.

Popular quickly issued a legal letter to Hashtag65 which was posted on Facebook by the clothing brand. In the letter, Popular's solicitors noted that Popular takes the protection of its intellectual property rights, including its registered trademarks, its copyright works, its substantial goodwill that it has built up over the years and its logo very seriously as a "cherished" brand in Singapore.

"It has come to our client's attention that T-shirts infringing our client's rights are being sold on the Hashtag65 website for which you registered the domain name," the letter read.

It noted that the t-shirts were likely to cause Popular "serious commercial harm" particularly amongst those who believe that the bookstore has endorsed or agreed to this use.

"While our client is aware if the recent publicity surrounding the use of the word 'populist/s' and has no wish to stop legitimate fun or comment, you will appreciate that it cannot allow this potentially damaging infringement of its rights to continue," it said.

It added that the way in which the t-shirts utilise the world 'populist' use the same typeface as used by Popular for many years together with a logo that is similar to Popular's registered logo and argued that this passes off as trademark infringement and copyright infringement.

In response, Hashtag65 noted in a Facebook post that it is not endorsed or related to Popular bookstore and that it will be stopping the sales of the t-shirts "very soon" as requested.

It added that it wished people had a better sense of humor when it came to these things.

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