Ikea cracks down on French fan's website
The Local France - [email protected]
Published: 18 Jun, 2015 CET.
Updated: Thu 18 Jun 2015 16:43 CET
A French blogger and Ikea fanatic has incurred the wrath of Swedish furniture giant after he created a website called Ikeapedia in the chain's honour.
French blogger Loic Bréat, 36, is a serious Ikea fan. So much so, in fact, that he has created two websites in the store's honour.
The first, IkeaAddict, was made back in 2009 for French fans of flatpack furniture and still boasts thousands of fans and followers on social media channels like Facebook and Pinterest.
His latest project, Ikeapedia, categorizes everything that Ikea has ever made - including instruction manuals and a question/answer section for those struggling to assemble their product.
But the Swedish giant is having none of it, and has threatened legal action if the Frenchman doesn't take the website offline, reported French channel BFM TV on Thursday.
Ikea is notorious for its brand protection. An incredibly popular website called Ikea Hacker, which publishes user modifications of Ikea furniture, was also threatened with a cease and desist order from the chain last year.
The site remains up and running today after an outcry from the public saw Ikea backtrack, with a spokesperson saying in a statement that the company regretted the incident deeply. The site currently has over 250,000 fans on Facebook.
Not all brands have such a staunch protection of their name. Nutella once tried to put a stop to "Nutella Day", which was invented by a fan, but later embraced it to great success.
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French blogger Loic Bréat, 36, is a serious Ikea fan. So much so, in fact, that he has created two websites in the store's honour.
The first, IkeaAddict, was made back in 2009 for French fans of flatpack furniture and still boasts thousands of fans and followers on social media channels like Facebook and Pinterest.
His latest project, Ikeapedia, categorizes everything that Ikea has ever made - including instruction manuals and a question/answer section for those struggling to assemble their product.
But the Swedish giant is having none of it, and has threatened legal action if the Frenchman doesn't take the website offline, reported French channel BFM TV on Thursday.
Ikea is notorious for its brand protection. An incredibly popular website called Ikea Hacker, which publishes user modifications of Ikea furniture, was also threatened with a cease and desist order from the chain last year.
The site remains up and running today after an outcry from the public saw Ikea backtrack, with a spokesperson saying in a statement that the company regretted the incident deeply. The site currently has over 250,000 fans on Facebook.
Not all brands have such a staunch protection of their name. Nutella once tried to put a stop to "Nutella Day", which was invented by a fan, but later embraced it to great success.
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