Spot the difference?
Last week’s triumphant announcement that the U.S. discount retail chain Target is indeed coming to Canada may be hitting a snag. As we reported in October, due to a trademark dispute with Canadian owned Target Apparel, the U.S. chain may be forced to change its name. Never heard of Target Apparel? Well, that’s exactly what Target Corp. is claiming: the U.S. chain filed a challenge with the Canadian trademark office in July 2010 asserting the Toronto owner of Target Apparel, Isaac Benitah—also head of Fairweather Ltd. and International Clothiers—has not used the Target name in the past three years.
The challenge seems simple enough—except this isn’t Target Corp.’s first run-in with Target Apparel. The U.S. mega-chain first challenged Benitah’s right to use the similar moniker in 2002 after he acquired the Target Apparel brand from Dylex Ltd. While the Canadian federal trademark office initially agreed with the U.S.-based Target, the Federal Court of Appeal ruled in Benitah’s favour five years later. To complicate matters further, Benitah recently filed for $250 million in damages from Target Corp. or “profits unjustly gained” by using the Target name in Canada. In a similar move, Target Corp. recently sought a court injunction and more than $50,000 from Target Apparel, charging that its store name was “deliberately calculated to deceive and confuse the public in Canada.”
With the two Targets in a court battle over the same name, Target Apparel has been quietly opening stores in Sudbury, Ontario and Nanaimo, B.C. A shrewd move, considering Benitah has until the end of February to prove he’s used or had plans to use the Target name in the past three years.
Our (thoroughly non-professional) legal advice? Why not drop the whole legal battle and spell the store name the way everyone already pronounces it: Tar-jay.
• Fairweather sues Target for $250M over name [CTV]
• Target might have different name in Canada [CBC]
• A hitch in Target’s plans [Globe and Mail]
NEVER, EVER, EVER, EVER, have I heard of Target Apparel. Fairweather sucks. Does anyone even shop there anymore? The REAL TARGET wants to come to Canada, open hundreds of stores and provide jobs for thousands of people. God forbid it be a smooth process. Come on!!! That’s just sour grapes.
January 19, 2011 at 1:53 pm | by PamHonestly . i can care less about target apparel whatever that is ..its actually used-less !stop being selfish and let target come to canada alot of us are waiting
January 20, 2011 at 12:13 am | by imeeI have heard rumers that “Target” is a French Company and refused financial help for “Vetnam Vetrans Asso’also refused to allow “Salvation Army’bell ringers outside their stores at Christmas …..Should this be the case ….Keep them out of Canada, we dont need them. I for one will stick with “WallMart” and sugest all good Canadians ban the urge to shop in a store with such arrogant and selfish attatude
January 20, 2011 at 5:40 am | by Bill ListonI support Target Apparel and the business mind of Iaasc Benitah. Keeping Target out of Canada will be the best thing to do. Sick of all the whiners, I can care less about them!
January 20, 2011 at 9:15 am | by Wiliam RougeAny one who wants to boycott Isaac Benitah’s stores, join my Facebook group BOYCOTT FAIRWEATHER INC!! (I know, named wrong, but I can’t change it, sadly).
Join my cause and help Target come to Canada!
January 21, 2011 at 11:51 am | by Nick W.@ Bill Liston! For one to call Target arrogant and claim they have a selfish attitude while in fact supporting Walmart is a MAJOR hypocritical action. Wal-mart has put many other stores out of business because they bully suppliers into low prices and exclusive deals which makes it hard for any other company with “good morals” to cempete. Zellers (which was Truly Canadian) has struggled in attempts to keep up with Wal-mart’s brutish bully tactics in a less brutal manner. Zellers does not even carry Ipods anymore because wal-mart drove them out of the market! I am in full support of Target coming to Canada and bringing back some good old competitive spirit to Corporate bullies Wal-mart!!! and Target Apperal just want a money settlement!!!
January 21, 2011 at 7:14 pm | by Matthew MessererIsaac Benitah has had this up his sleeve for years and laughs about it. He is a money grubbing & brutal individual that couldn’t care less about anyone or anything other than himself his own pocket. He is a liar and a man who’s word should never be trusted…have know him for 25 years plus, he is all bad news….he had bankrupt and put the screws to alot of people…sucks you dry.
January 23, 2011 at 10:49 am | by CSH0h how sad. Mr Benitah has to blame the big bad ‘Murrican company for his similarly named business failing to launch? So now he’s opening stores to try to pretend he meant to all along? Pathetic much? Having Target in Canada won’t change anything but the mileage of Target shoppers’ cars. It means we won’t have to cross the border to purchase stylish products that Canadian stores refuse to carry. Seriously, if shoppers needs were being met by Canadian retailers, there would be no market for international companies.
January 26, 2011 at 9:08 am | by alectaThis is officially one of the saddest threads I’ve ever read. All of this outrage and vitriol over a billion dollar discount chain store fighting with some rich dude? Really?
Imagine for a second what a better world this would be if some of this anger were redirected towards an actual injustice.
January 26, 2011 at 10:56 am | by dublaitchI seems pretty obvious what’s going on here: this guy saw the opportunity to buy a trademarked name that would cash in later on, so he jumped on it. Kudos to him.
Target: yeah, this was a calculated move, but I doubt his intentions can be proven. Pay up and get on with it.
January 28, 2011 at 10:19 am | by HeatherBill and Will, shut yer faces up. Bill, do you even have any idea what WalMart does to its employees?? I wonder how much YOU donate to the Salvation Army or other charities…
March 7, 2011 at 2:08 am | by pinkas for this Isaac Benitah guy, thanks CSH for pointing those things out–I am not surprised. I have never heard of Target Apparel either but I do remember seeing the Target logo and the name Target above it and thinking, ‘this has got to be some kind of joke’ upon realizing it’s NO Target (as in, tar-jay)! How dare he?
CSH is absolutely right and it runs in their family.
March 11, 2011 at 7:59 pm | by RBRBoycott their stores! Time to bankrupt their asses!
I have to agree with the U.S. based retailer on this one. I drove by Target Apparel today and the signage is incredibly deceiving. The word “Target” is written about three times the size of “Apparel” and, while the exterior signage was being erected, the shell of their logo (a circle with a Canadian Maple Leaf) looked exactly like the US Target’s bullseye trademark.
They are completing trying to capitalize on the US retailers reputation. I didn’t even bother to go inside the store because I was so disgusted. Judging by the number of people I witnessed walking out of the store empty-handed, I clearly wasn’t the only one who was conned!
March 13, 2011 at 7:39 pm | by JulieI just think everything coming from USA is the best . They should bring all companies to Canada may be like this Canada could be up dated.
April 1, 2011 at 10:44 am | by LILIANAI drove by the other day and thought what kind of store is this. I was curious and so I stopped in. I was in awe. I bought a beautiful winter coat(ya i know it is spring)but for $25.00 for all their winter coats & dress coats. I told everyone I know. My mother in law went there today and bought 4 coats for my niece.
April 17, 2011 at 1:24 pm | by Kelly