MRAP vs BANANIA- LE FIGARO of 24 March 2011

The Movement against Racism and for Friendship between the Peoples (MRAP) argued today before the Court of Appeals of Versailles that the company Nutrimaine holding the trademark Banania has breached an agreement regarding the non-use of the trademark " Y a 'Bon" ("There's good").

The MRAP, dismissed at first instance before the Court of Nanterre, together with the Collectif Dom signed in early 2006 with the company Nutrimaine an agreement according to which the company Nutrimaine has undertaken to cancel and stop using its trademark Y BON BANANIA considered as demeaning black people.

In 2008 the MRAP discovered in a Parisian store and on a website the presence of products bearing the message "Y A BON"  BANANIA associated to the famous image of a Senegalese soldier.

The MRAP pursued the comany Nutrimaine before the Court of Appeals of Versailles for damages of 650,000 euros.

"I would like to believe that there are random errors, I would like to believe that it is the complete mess for Nutrimaine and its licensees...However, it is a fact that Nutrimaine broke up the agreement"  said Mr. David Marty, counsel for the MRAP. "The brand 'Y'a bon Banania' exists since 1914, it was a different era... we are not here to rewrite the history, but in 2005, we brought the company Nutrimaine before the Court because we beleive that this brand nowadays is contrary to public order", he said.

FURTHER INFORMATION: http://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/2011/03/24/97001-20110324FILWWW00520-y...