The recent froyo store launched in Ampang aroused heated among the Malaysians when II.Ia.Io was called out for their blatant plagiarism upon the famous brand llaollao. II.Ia.Io during the launched was offering an attractive 50% discounts as an opening promotion but it doesn’t keep the fans from pointing out the obvious as the new brand did not differentiate themselves from the established ones.
“They look waaay too similar to the famous llaollao!” – One of the comment in Facebook
People were so demented and they even figured out the spelling of the new froyo store which was not even made with a single “L”. By copy pasting the official name of II.Ia.Io from the official Facebook page into Microsoft Word, it was ii.ia.io the whole time when it’s in small caps. When it is made with small caps of an “i” instead of letter “L”, ii.ia.io was likely to resemble the original llaollao’s pronunciation in Spanish with letter “L” pronounced as “Y”.
Other notable features that people raved about were the round fonts, the shape of the iconic spoons, the type of product’s line and even the row of assorted toppings that were presented. The only thing that may differentiate II.Ia.Io and the original ones is the theme colour which is sky blue.
Although, llaollao Malaysia hasn’t exactly responded to the ruckus, but what’s interesting was when they came out with a meme posted on social media showing personified llaollao’s yoghut slapping another yoghurt labelled with “copycat”. However, llaollao is yet to confirm if they would take any legal action towards this matter.
Uploaded on Facebook by llao llao on Monday 28’th March 2022 – With no caption, the satirical photo shows a personified llaollao yoghurt slapping another yoghurt labelled ‘copycat’.
The photo above was in reference to a shocking incident of actor Will Smith slapped a comedian Chris Rock after his joke enraged Smith’s and his wife.
At the end of the day, there is nothing wrong to launch any sort of business but don’t simply go in a wrong way by an infringement. People might think it is a smart way in terms of marketing strategy to simply copy the ideas of a well established and famous brand. Little did they know, they are involving themselves in major risk of legal action and a chance for the business to be shutted. Be wise and innovative in term of building a brand and most importantly, secure your idea by a legal protection.
This article is brought to you by Exy Intellectual Property Sdn Bhd.