Latest news with #YFC
Western Telegraph
a day ago
- General
- Western Telegraph
Support from Pembrokeshire YFCs after Sally Allen, dies in A40 crash
Keen horsewoman Sally, from Cresswell Quay, was driving home from the Royal Welsh Show in Builth Wells last Wednesday morning, July 23, when her car was involved in the collision on the A40 between Llandeilo and Carmarthen. Sally was a member of Martletwy YFC - where she excelled in public speaking and stock-judging - and had spent the previous evening in the show's members tent with her friends, said the 'heartbroken' club in a tribute on Facebook. Sally was 'endlessly caring, unintentionally hilarious and the most amazing supportive and joyful person,' her loving family said. (Image: Family photo) They added: 'Sally was the warmest, most loving person and with her big beaming smile she would light up the room. She was always very generous with her hugs and free with her advice. She was a friend to everyone, young or old. 'Sally's family are heavily involved in our club, with brother William and sister Issie also being active members. Sally's Mum Kate is an active leader and her Dad Richard an ever-present helper." The club subsequently passed on the thanks of Sally's family for the kindness and support they have received from everyone. The family described her as 'a much-loved sister', a 'treasured daughter' and a 'beloved granddaughter' and added: "In only 18 years of her life, she touched the hearts of so many people." Sally is remembered as 'the warmest, most loving person'. (Image: Family photo) Tonight, Monday July 28, representatives of bereavement charity Sandy Bear will be at the Martletwy YFC Hall at Cresselly to offer support, while a book of condolence will be at the hall from tomorrow, Tuesday July 29. A book of condolence has also opened at Greenhill School, Tenby, where former pupil Sally was a member of the school's successful showjumping team. Sally enjoyed horseriding and her day-to-day life at home in the riverside community of Cresswell Quay. (Image: Family photo) Pembrokeshire YFC is now working with agricultural sector mental health charity, the DPJ Foundation, along with Sandy Bear, to ensure that support is available to all YFC members in Pembrokeshire and across the wider YFC community. Describing Sally as a 'cherished member of Martletwy YFC' and 'a much-loved part of our YFC family', the organisation reminded members: ' If you have been affected by this news, please don't hesitate to reach out. "Support is available through Wales YFC's Designated Wellbeing and Safeguarding Officer, or the NFYFC's Wellbeing and Safeguarding Team at safeguarding@
Powys County Times
3 days ago
- Automotive
- Powys County Times
Tributes to 'loving' YFC member who died in A40 car crash
TRIBUTES have been paid to a teenager who was killed in a car crash on her way home to Pembrokeshire from the Royal Welsh Show last week. Sally Allen's 'big beaming smile would light up the room', while she was also described as a 'friend to everyone, young or old' by her local Young Farmers Club (YFC). Sally, 18, died at the scene of a road traffic collision involving a red Renault Clio and Blue Audi Q5 on the A40 at Broadoak, between Carmarthen and Llandeilo, at 8am on Wednesday, July 23. Martletwy YFC, of which Sally was a member, said it was 'heartbroken' at news of her death. 'Sally's family are heavily involved in our club, with brother William and sister Issie also being active members,' said the club, in a heartwarming tribute on its Facebook page. 'Sally's mum Kate is an active leader and her dad Richard an ever present helper. 'Sally was the warmest, most loving person and with her big beaming smile she would light up the room. 'She was always very generous with her hugs and free with her advice. She was a friend to everyone, young or old. 'She spent her last night at the show with her friends in the members tent, dancing the night away with a croc on one foot and a trainer on the other, that was just Sal. 'We would like to pass on our deepest condolences to Sally's family and to her wide circle of friends outside YFC. 'We will be with you to support along the way, we're working closely with DPJ and Sandybear, so if anyone feels they need to talk please don't hesitate to contact our club. 'We express our thanks to these charities and the wider YFC family for their support at this difficult time. Fly high beautiful girl.' In a statement, her family said they were both devastated and in shock, adding that Sally was 'endlessly caring, unintentionally hilarious and the most amazing, supportive and joyful person'. 'In only 18 years of her life, she touched the hearts of so many people within her community, her school, her work and social life,' they said. A huge lover of horses, Sally was said to have found happiness at Martletwy YFC, the family said. 'Sally was a much-loved sister to William and Issie, and a treasured daughter of Richard and Kate,' said the Allen family, who added that she was a beloved granddaughter and loved by all her aunties, uncles and cousins. 'She had a large number of friends and was very popular with everyone who knew her,' they said. 'Since her death it has become apparent how much Sally was loved and cherished. Her sudden absence leaves an unfillable space in the lives so many people that knew and loved her.' Sally was from Cresswell Quay, Kilgetty, near Tenby, and was a former pupil at the town's Ysgol Greenhill. A Eucharist service for Sally was due to be held in Jeffreyston Church, near her home, at 10.30am on Saturday morning, July 26. Dyfed Powys Police is appealing for witnesses following the fatal collision. A spokesperson for the force said: 'Sadly, the female driver of the Renault passed away at the scene. Their next of kin have been informed and are being supported by specialist officers. 'The occupants of the other vehicle were taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.'
Scoop
09-07-2025
- Business
- Scoop
How fried chicken food truck YFC ran afoul of KFC's trademark lawyers
Explainer: An entrepreneurial teenager ran into trouble when his fried chicken business was called out by KFC. Why does a giant global corporation care so much about similarity to their logo? It all boils down to intellectual property rights, and businesses big and small wanting to protect their brand. What happened with YFC? Riccarton high school student Ben Yang started up his own business last year selling Korean fried chicken and more. The 17-year-old called it "YFC" - as in 'Yang Fried Chicken' - and gave it a red logo featuring a cartoon of Yang. However, fast food giant KFC objected to the similarity to its own logo, sending out legal documents ordering him to cease and desist. Yang has been told to change the name of his food truck by August and has started a contest to help rebrand. Why does KFC have to go after the 'little guy'? The teenager ran afoul of intellectual property rights by coming so close to the well-known KFC logo. Ben Cain, an intellectual property lawyer at Auckland law firm James & Wells, said it doesn't matter how small your business is in cases like this. "Companies like KFC take their IP rights in their brands, be they trademark rights, copyright rights or 'get-up' rights in how the brand is graphically represented, very seriously and they do so for good reasons." Rob Batty, co-director of the New Zealand Centre for Intellectual Property and an associate law professor at the University of Auckland, said enforcement action against trademark infringement often boils down to not wanting to confuse customers. "Consumer confusion can potentially lead to loss of sales," he said. "The prospect of consumers being confused by the use of the same or a similar sign can also potentially damage the reputation associated with a trademark." And while a teenager's food truck may be small, there are bigger principles at stake, Cain said. "The size of the business which is enforcing their rights is really irrelevant in this context - small or big, no one likes a third party copying their IP, so every business should take enforcement of their rights seriously. If a business doesn't, it can lose bottomline value in its IP rights by what is called 'loss of distinctiveness'." Batty noted there have been many cases where a trademarked term loses its uniqueness and becomes a generic term, such as aspirin, trampoline or escalator. "It is possible that a prolonged failure to police a trademark by a registered trademark owner could lead to genericide," he said. "Genericide describes a situation where a trademark loses its distinctiveness entirely, and becomes the common descriptive term of a particular good or service." Cain said that Yang's design ultimately comes too close to the more famous logo. "He's done something he shouldn't, perhaps naively: he's emulated the KFC name, logo and brand colours and as a consequence received a standard letter from a business asking him to stop and change. Such a letter is standard practice for a company the size of KFC - not calling an alleged infringer and saying 'hey, please stop'." Yang told RNZ he was surprised to get the legal orders. "It's quite shocking to see that KFC, this really big brand, would find out about this small food truck that's just parked down the road ... and just send legal documents without ... talking to us beforehand, without any communication," he said. A spokesperson for KFC earlier refused to comment on the YFC case to RNZ. How do they even find out? In the age of social media, it doesn't matter how small or remote your business is. YFC's logo, prominent on Instagram and other social media, was eventually spotted, and "someone saw his branding and told someone who told someone", Cain said. "Larger organisations may have specific individuals whose responsibility it is to monitor for conduct like this." Hasn't this sort of thing happened before? Small New Zealand businesses running afoul of bigger companies is nothing new. "'Policing' a registered trademark can protect against 'dilution'," Batty said. "This is where the distinctiveness of a trademark - that is, the ability of a trademark to be identified by consumers as marking out goods and services as having a particular trade origin - is weakened or eroded." The takeaway shop Popeye's in Feilding changed its name last year to North Street Takeaways after the US fast food giant of the same name objected. The American Popeye's opened its first outlet in New Zealand last year. In 2023, New Zealand homeware retailer Bed Bath & Beyond lost a trademark battle in the High Court against the Australian Bed Bath 'N' Table over a number of intellectual property-related claims. Back in 2015, the Christchurch cleaning firm Minions and Me ran into trouble with Hollywood's Universal Pictures for using images of the animated characters featured in the movie series Despicable Me. The business continues to use the name but had to drop all reference to the animated characters from its branding and advertising. Another famous copyright battle in the 1980s ensued between Harrods department store in London and a Palmerston North restaurant, which drew global media interest, while Australia and New Zealand had a long-running stoush over who could use the name mānuka honey. Well, how do you protect your business name yourself? "Being first matters," Batty said. "When you have come up with a new brand name or a new logo for your business, you should check whether the same name or logo (or a similar name or logo) has been registered as a trademark by another trader." The Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand offers assistance in searching for and registering trademarks. It can also do "distinctiveness reports" to see if your name or logo comes a bit too close for comfort to another. Cain also suggests getting help from a professional intellectual property expert. "The first thing you should do is ask an IP lawyer to conduct a clearance search of identical and similar trademarks of all the countries you're intending to trade in. It's tempting to do the searching yourself but unless you are experienced it's not a good idea as there are many pitfalls. "Many start-ups and small businesses don't do any searching before they choose their name and come unstuck," he said, and they then lost time and money dealing with rebranding. The New Zealand Trade Marks Act 2002 also looks at situations where a person started using a trademark before another person registers or starts using a similar or identical one. "The first user will have a defence to trademark infringement," Batty said. KFC, originally calling itself Kentucky Fried Chicken, first opened in New Zealand back in 1971. "Some traders register their trademarks in New Zealand well before they start using them," Batty said. "For example, an application to register the words KENTUCKY FRIED CHICKEN was filed in 1981 (trademark registration number 139149). A logo (showing a portrait of Colonel Harland Sanders) is recorded on the Register as being filed in 1964 (trademark registration number 76669, now expired)." What options do you have if you get served up with a letter telling you you're infringing on someone's trademark? Yang has chosen to rebrand his fledgling business, rather than engage in a lengthy legal battle like some of those other examples. "Your options are pretty simple: fight back or change," Cain said. If you had a good defence over your trademark claim and can afford legal fees, it could be worth the battle, but ultimately boils down to how far you want to go, he said. "If you have no or a poor defence, don't quibble about it - just agree to change and change. Consumers will move on and accept your new brand before you know it."
Otago Daily Times
09-07-2025
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
How a Chch fried chicken food truck ran afoul of KFC's trademark lawyers
By Nik Dirga of RNZ Explainer: An entrepreneurial teenager ran into trouble when his fried chicken business was called out by KFC. Why does a giant global corporation care so much about similarity to their logo? It all boils down to intellectual property rights, and businesses big and small wanting to protect their brand. What happened with YFC? Riccarton high school student Ben Yang started up his own business last year selling Korean fried chicken and more. The 17-year-old called it "YFC" - as in 'Yang Fried Chicken' - and gave it a red logo featuring a cartoon of Yang. However, fast food giant KFC objected to the similarity to its own logo, sending out legal documents ordering him to cease and desist. Yang has been told to change the name of his food truck by August and has started a contest to help rebrand. Why does KFC have to go after the 'little guy'? The teenager ran afoul of intellectual property rights by coming so close to the well-known KFC logo. Ben Cain, an intellectual property lawyer at Auckland law firm James & Wells, said it doesn't matter how small your business is in cases like this. "Companies like KFC take their IP rights in their brands, be they trademark rights, copyright rights or 'get-up' rights in how the brand is graphically represented, very seriously and they do so for good reasons." Rob Batty, co-director of the New Zealand Centre for Intellectual Property and an associate law professor at the University of Auckland, said enforcement action against trademark infringement often boils down to not wanting to confuse customers. "Consumer confusion can potentially lead to loss of sales," he said. "The prospect of consumers being confused by the use of the same or a similar sign can also potentially damage the reputation associated with a trademark." And while a teenager's food truck may be small, there are bigger principles at stake, Cain said. "The size of the business which is enforcing their rights is really irrelevant in this context - small or big, no one likes a third party copying their IP, so every business should take enforcement of their rights seriously. If a business doesn't, it can lose bottomline value in its IP rights by what is called 'loss of distinctiveness'." Batty noted there have been many cases where a trademarked term loses its uniqueness and becomes a generic term, such as aspirin, trampoline or escalator. "It is possible that a prolonged failure to police a trademark by a registered trademark owner could lead to genericide," he said. "Genericide describes a situation where a trademark loses its distinctiveness entirely, and becomes the common descriptive term of a particular good or service." Cain said that Yang's design ultimately comes too close to the more famous logo. "He's done something he shouldn't, perhaps naively: he's emulated the KFC name, logo and brand colours and as a consequence received a standard letter from a business asking him to stop and change. Such a letter is standard practice for a company the size of KFC - not calling an alleged infringer and saying 'hey, please stop'." Yang told RNZ he was surprised to get the legal orders. "It's quite shocking to see that KFC, this really big brand, would find out about this small food truck that's just parked down the road ... and just send legal documents without ... talking to us beforehand, without any communication," he said. A spokesperson for KFC earlier refused to comment on the YFC case to RNZ. How do they even find out? In the age of social media, it doesn't matter how small or remote your business is. YFC's logo, prominent on Instagram and other social media, was eventually spotted, and "someone saw his branding and told someone who told someone", Cain said. "Larger organisations may have specific individuals whose responsibility it is to monitor for conduct like this." Hasn't this sort of thing happened before? Small New Zealand businesses running afoul of bigger companies is nothing new. "'Policing' a registered trademark can protect against 'dilution'," Batty said. "This is where the distinctiveness of a trademark - that is, the ability of a trademark to be identified by consumers as marking out goods and services as having a particular trade origin - is weakened or eroded." The takeaway shop Popeye's in Feilding changed its name last year to North Street Takeaways after the US fast food giant of the same name objected. The American Popeye's opened its first outlet in New Zealand last year. In 2023, New Zealand homeware retailer Bed Bath & Beyond lost a trademark battle in the High Court against the Australian Bed Bath 'N' Table over a number of intellectual property-related claims. Back in 2015, the Christchurch cleaning firm Minions and Me ran into trouble with Hollywood's Universal Pictures for using images of the animated characters featured in the movie series Despicable Me. The business continues to use the name but had to drop all reference to the animated characters from its branding and advertising. Another famous copyright battle in the 1980s ensued between Harrods department store in London and a Palmerston North restaurant, which drew global media interest, while Australia and New Zealand had a long-running stoush over who could use the name mānuka honey. Well, how do you protect your business name yourself? "Being first matters," Batty said. "When you have come up with a new brand name or a new logo for your business, you should check whether the same name or logo (or a similar name or logo) has been registered as a trademark by another trader." The Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand offers assistance in searching for and registering trademarks. It can also do "distinctiveness reports" to see if your name or logo comes a bit too close for comfort to another. Cain also suggests getting help from a professional intellectual property expert. "The first thing you should do is ask an IP lawyer to conduct a clearance search of identical and similar trademarks of all the countries you're intending to trade in. It's tempting to do the searching yourself but unless you are experienced it's not a good idea as there are many pitfalls. "Many start-ups and small businesses don't do any searching before they choose their name and come unstuck," he said, and they then lost time and money dealing with rebranding. The New Zealand Trade Marks Act 2002 also looks at situations where a person started using a trademark before another person registers or starts using a similar or identical one. "The first user will have a defence to trademark infringement," Batty said. KFC, originally calling itself Kentucky Fried Chicken, first opened in New Zealand back in 1971. "Some traders register their trademarks in New Zealand well before they start using them," Batty said. "For example, an application to register the words KENTUCKY FRIED CHICKEN was filed in 1981 (trademark registration number 139149). A logo (showing a portrait of Colonel Harland Sanders) is recorded on the Register as being filed in 1964 (trademark registration number 76669, now expired)." What options do you have if you get served up with a letter telling you you're infringing on someone's trademark? Yang has chosen to rebrand his fledgling business, rather than engage in a lengthy legal battle like some of those other examples. "Your options are pretty simple: fight back or change," Cain said. If you had a good defence over your trademark claim and can afford legal fees, it could be worth the battle, but ultimately boils down to how far you want to go, he said. "If you have no or a poor defence, don't quibble about it - just agree to change and change. Consumers will move on and accept your new brand before you know it."
Otago Daily Times
08-07-2025
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
‘Shocking' KFC demand means Chch teen needs new logo
By Liu Chen of RNZ A 17-year-old entrepreneur has launched an appeal on social media to find a "unique" design for his fried chicken business after being instructed to rebrand by fast food giant KFC. High school student Ben Yang runs Yang's Fried Chicken from a food truck selling Korean fried chicken, bubble tea and dessert in Riccarton, Christchurch. Yang started the business in a physical store last year before moving it to a food truck in February. The teenager would work in the food truck after school every day and during the holidays, with his mother - and occasionally his grandmother - involved in the operation. The food truck's logo features an illustration of Yang wearing a red suit on a red background with "YFC" in white font. In June, Yang received a stack of legal documents from KFC that left him stunned. The teenager was surprised to receive the package. "It's quite shocking to see that KFC, this really big brand, would find out about this small food truck that's just parked down the road ... and just send legal documents without ... talking to us beforehand, without any communication," he said. Yang was initially given a deadline of 2 July to rebrand his operation and cease using "YFC", but it has since been extended to early August. Yang has called on designers to submit ideas for a new logo before 13 July, promising the winner a lifetime supply of free fried chicken. He said followers of the campaign could vote for their favourite design on Instagram. "It's pretty good to see that there's a lot of involvement within the community towards this," he said. Yang hoped to franchise his brand in future, wanting to open stores in Auckland and other cities. Born in Christchurch, Yang has been raised in the Garden City by his Chinese mother. Yang's South Korean father died when he was just 1 year old, and he would often visit his grandparents in the port city of Busan. The fried chicken his grandparents made him on such visits inspired Yang to start his business. "There's a bit of me just learning online and ... I kind of perfected it, like taking some parts of that one, mixing it with my one and then making an overall better recipe, I guess," he said. Ben's mother, Kathy Qiu, said Yang had worked hard from a young age. Yang had opened the fried chicken operation partly to give Qiu a job after being out of work, she said. "He's very busy with the shop," she said. "He had to go back to study, and he still does well in his studies." She said the logo did look a little similar to KFC's iconic design. "If we need to change it, we will," she said. "We're preparing to change the logo." KFC said it was unable to comment on the matter.
