A UK woman has launched a legal battle against discount supermarket chain B&M Stores.
Sarah Greenwell, Durham, claims that the prominent retailer has infringed her intellectual property (IP), after “duplicating” a product idea she came up with three years ago during a period of maternity leave.
The 36-year-old, who launched ‘Elf for Christmas’ – a festive toy which encourages children to be well-behaved – in 2014, says that she was horrified after stumbling upon an image of an eerily similar product on social media.
“I was on Facebook and someone shared a picture of an elf… I got all excited as I thought people were talking about [my product] really early. But when I clicked I was so shocked, as I realised it wasn’t ours,” she said.
“I went into my local [B&M] shop the next day and they had loads of them out on display.
“It’s very, very similar in terms of the design and the language they use.
“In some cases, it’s almost identical,” she said.
Ms Greenwell was further disheartened to discover that B&M was selling the product for £9.99 – almost half the retail price of her own ‘Elf for Christmas’ toys.
Following the discovery, the Durham mother-of-two is challenging B&M on grounds of IP infringement, arguing that the retailer’s ‘Magical Christmas Elf’ product is a near-exact copy of her own.
She said: “I firmly believe I have a strong case against B&M and I intend to take further action until this is resolved fairly.”
In response, B&M has insisted that their product does not infringe her IP.