Snackdown! Takis Fuego products may no longer be sold in SA after trademark battle

Nine years of litigation and undisclosed legal fees have resulted in the loss of 89 trademarks belonging to a company named by Time Magazine as the world’s best Mexican company.

Grupo Bimbo, which the magazine selected as the 113th best company in the world for 2023, has now lost key access to the South African market after the Supreme Court of Appeal ruled against it over unpaid legal bills stemming from a lengthy trademark infringement battle over the rights to the Takis name in South Africa. 

Grupo Bimbo, a multinational giant which owns more than 100 brands, has a presence in 35 countries. 

It registered the trademark of Takis Fuego, a popular range of spicy tortilla crisps sold in a variety of flavours, in South Africa on 6 June 2012 – almost 40 years after Takis Biltong came into being – covering bread, pastry, corn flour chips, wheat flour chips, popcorn and other products. 

South African consumers associate the Takis name with biltong. 

Takis, which was set up as a home business in Linksfield by Taki Aristides in 1974 before moving to a butchery in Mayfair, Johannesburg, sells mainly prepacked biltong, biltong sticks and other products to the local and export market.

Takis Biltong registered its trademarks on 8 May 2007, covering meat, fish, poultry, game, preserved meats, meat extracts and sausages.

On 24 April 2015, a legal dispute was declared in court over the rights to the Takis trademark for snack foods, after Grupo Bimbo applied to register the Takis logo mark and three Takis word marks covering not only meat, meat products, processed meat, biltong, meat extracts, potato crisps and chips, processed nuts and dried fruit, but also sweets and confectionary, nuts of all kinds (unprocessed), raisins and snack foods of all kinds.

In 2018, the Pretoria High Court initially ruled in favour of Grupo Bimbo, finding that the Takis trademarks were not identical. However, this decision was overturned on appeal by the same court in May 2022 and a costs order was granted on the basis that use of the name “Takis” was likely to confuse consumers. 

The cancellation of the Takis Fuego trademark was confirmed by the Supreme Court of Appeal, which blocked Grupo Bimbo from selling its tortilla chips in South Africa under the brand Takis Fuego.

Despite the court ruling, Takis Fuego products remain available in South Africa, including on Takealot, where a 92g packet will set you back R129. Amazon is selling a 567g “fiesta size” bag for R245. 

Grupo Bimbo claims the products are being imported by third-party suppliers.

Andrew Papadopoulos, the trademark lawyer who represented Takis Biltong, says Grupo Bimbo has refused to pay Takis’s “substantial” legal fees, despite the Supreme Court ruling, which forced the company to attach the 89 trademarks registered by Grupo Bimbo in South Africa. The trademarks will now go on auction as Kisch IP, the lawyers for Takis Biltong, seek to recoup costs for their client and themselves. 

Grupo Bimbo has shown “very little respect” for the rule of law in South Africa, Papadopoulos said, hailing the ruling as finally holding the company accountable. After the Supreme Court ruling, there were settlement discussions on a payment plan, but the discussions were never concluded he said. “The court order says they had to pay Takis’s legal costs and they didn’t pay.”

Grupo Bimbo’s annual revenue exceeds $22.6-billion.

“They came through nine years of litigation. They spent a lot of money (on legal fees and registering trademarks). My client only had a junior council – they had two senior councils and they spent a lot of money trying to (enforce) this.” 

Papadopoulos said Grupo Bimbo has denied continuing sales of its products in South Africa, saying it is not the distributor or importer of those products. 

“So, if they are telling the truth, then the products that are coming through are grey goods, parallel imports… We have now (reached out to) each of the retailers that are stocking their products and we’re getting them to take it down. The products should be off the shelves in the next week or so,” he said.

Grupo Bimbo could not be reached for comment directly.

Daily Maverick contacted their representing attorneys in South Africa. Janusz Luterek of Hahn & Hahn denied that Grupo Bimbo ignored the Supreme Court ruling, maintaining that the Takis corn products currently on the market are grey imports with no connection to Grupo Bimbo, “just like all the Arizona Ice Tea and Dr Pepper being sold at various Spars and sweet shops”. DM