The bitter rivalry between discount cafe chains Cofix and Cofizz focuses on the former's claim that the latter has ripped off its logo. Yesterday, Cofizz filed a defense with the trademark registrar in response to a suit six months ago by Cofix that it had violated the copyright of its logo.
Cofizz said in its statement through Adv. Guy Ofir that the shape of its logo is completely different from the shape of Cofix's logo and is different in terms of colors, font sizes, and its layout on its products such as cups, stickers, bags, and menus.
Cofix was founded 18 months ago by Avi Katz with the idea of drastically reducing prices in the cafe sector. Katz successfully set up a nationwide chain but has found stubborn opposition from two disgruntled employees Amir Amsalem and Dani Mizrahi who set up the Cofizz chain.
In addition to defending the alleged differences between their logo and Cofix's, Cofizz's owners Amsalem and Mizrachi claim that as budding franchisee operators they were forced to work for a month in a Cofix branch, from dawn to dusk, performing all tasks, for no pay. After three weeks they were told by Katz that he would not be giving them a franchise.
Amsalem said, "We decided we'd had enough and chose to open our own cafe. We contacted a designed who recommended the name Cofizz."
Cofix procurement manager Hagit Shinover said, "Amsalem and Mizrachi are former Cofix employees who worked for a very short period at our Ibn Gbriol branch. They probably saw that the business was good and decided to try and duplicate the success by themselves. They have not innocently chosen a name or perhaps unwittingly or mistaken chose a similar name."
Katz told "Globes" that Cofix pays a fair wage to all employees and that Amsalem and Mizrachi had chosen for their own reasons not to come to Cofix's office and collect their pay.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on December 18, 2014
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