Sally Obermeder forced to rebrand wellness business SWIISH to Ziish

Sydney businesswoman and influencer Sally Obermeder has been ordered to change the name of her established wellness brand, after losing a trademark battle against Swisse Wellness.

Obermeder founded Ziish with her business partner and sister, Maha Corbett, a decade ago.

This week, they rebranded with the name Ziish.

However, while the sister presented the new name as a cause for celebration, The Daily Telegraph's Sunday Confidential reported “the decision came after a stoush with wellness giant Swisse.”

Apparently, Obermeder “had applied to register the SWIISH name and logo across two categories covering beauty and skincare products, as well as dietary and nutritional supplements.”

Supplement giant Swisse opposed the applications, arguing SWIISH was too similar to its established Swisse brand.

 

 

 

 

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The Trade Marks Office has reportedly now found that the names were “visually, aurally, and phonetically similar”, meaning there was a “real danger” SWIISH could be mistaken for a “variant, extension of, or otherwise associated with” Swisse.

Obermeder had attempted to argue that her brand SWIISH was unaware of any actual cases of customers confusing the brands, but the Trade Marks Office decided that cases of consumer confusion was not required.

There was also a packaging issue; Swisse alleged similarities between SWIISH’s packaging and its own, claiming the packaging seemed to be “considered or been inspired by” Swisse’s.