Frisby, the fried chicken franchise that awakens Colombian patriotism

“Today I want to apologize to all Colombians, because we didn't just take your gold, but also your most precious possession.” With this comical phrase, a Spanish influencer summed up on TikTok the recent case pitting Frisby, Colombia's favorite fried chicken franchise, against an obscure Spanish company that it accuses of usurping its trademark in order to exploit it in Europe. A legal and media battle that is reawakening an unprecedented sense of patriotic revolt in the South American nation.

The case began in April, when a website and social media accounts bearing Frisby's name appeared in Spain. These publications “initially raised hopes that the company, with more than forty years of history in Colombia, would arrive in a country where more than 800,000 Colombians live,” writes El País America . But these aspirations quickly faded when Frisby denounced the usurpation of its trademark by a company of the same name created less than a year earlier by two Europeans, the Spaniard Gonzalo Barrenechea and the Belgian Jacqueline Guillemine Pérez.

Taking advantage of the fact that the Colombian franchise has never used its trademark in Europe, even though it was registered in 2005, the Spanish Frisby España SL obtained a preliminary decision in its favor from the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) allowing it to use it freely, with a logo and graphic identity similar to the original.

Having been dismissed in court, Frisby SA BIC received unexpected support from its main competitors in Colombia, Kokoriko and KFC, soon followed by nearly 200 brands in aviation, cement, petroleum products, and even football teams and politicians of all stripes. “An unprecedented viral phenomenon in the Colombian business world,” according to the newspaper El Tiempo .

In this country where chicken is king, "Frisby's legal battle against a Spanish trademark has fueled Colombia's patriotism" against the nation from which it gained independence in 1810, reports El País América.

“While we can’t even agree on the weather, chicken has united us,” jokes El Colombiano . Because “in Colombia, the arepa (corn cake) is round, the coffee is taken without sugar and the chicken comes from Frisby,” the newspaper adds about the brand with 270 restaurants, which employs some 5,000 people. While Colombian journalist Daniel Samper even went so far as to place the brand above “the love we have for Shakira” in an op-ed published in Cambio magazine .

And although the legal battle is far from over, as Frisby can still appeal the EUIPO's decision before its trademark registration is cancelled in Europe, it has emerged as the winner in this case for the time being, having not spent a single penny on a marketing campaign that otherwise "would have cost millions of pesos," El Tiempo points out.