Handmade soap and cosmetics company Lush has trademarked a cosmetics range named after Amazon’s UK boss Christopher North.
The move comes after the husband and wife team behind Lush won a high court battle with Amazon over its use of the word “lush”, to sell rival cosmetics products. The company was engaged in a three-year battle with Amazon, after products resembling Lush’s “Sex Bomb” bath salts and “Prince Charming” shower gel appeared on the Amazon website where they were described as “lush”.
The combative brand strategy will see the production of a shower gel in the Christopher North range, which has the tagline: “Rich, thick and full of it”.
Lush does not sell products through Amazon and argued that customers were being misled.
Mark Constantine, who founded Lush with his wife Mo in Poole in 1995, said: “We asked them 17 times before we went to court. After a while you realise you’re being bullied.”
According to the Guardian, Constantine said he had trademarked the name of the Amazon boss to “make a point about how upsetting it is to have something personal to you, used by someone else”. He added that the North shower product was originally intended as a joke and not meant to go on sale.
But after Amazon refused to back down over the sale of their rival cosmetics, Constantine said he wouldn’t put up with the firm’s “bullying”, and would consider putting the products on the shelves.
“How are they going to behave, are they going to do the right thing, or continue to be naughty?” he said. “If this was a normal business relationship it would have been a joke between us. But this is Amazon, how will they behave?
“We are going to keep this on the table and wait and see. If you’re not going to behave in a way that’s appropriate, there should be some comeback.”
If the Christopher North products do go on sale, then Lush has said that all profits will go to good causes. The firm has already been in contact with tax avoidance protest group UK Uncut.
Speaking to the Guardian, Constantine said that the Lush designers had “a lot of fun” making the new product, which comes with the top tip: “Kindle a new love for your skin, it’s not taxing to take care of your skin with this product packed with Amazon Prime ingredients”.
Fearing reprisals, Constantine has taken the precaution of trademarking his own name, while he waits for Amazon to retaliate.
“They will no doubt give us another whopping with a stick,” he added.
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