Chanel vs Chanelle Nailbar - Fair or Foul?

The owner of Chanelle Nailbar got a nasty surprise: Fashion and beauty empire Chanel was not amused by the use of its name and promptly sent a cease and desist letter. 

Owner Le Ngyun was surprised, she came up with the name by combining the first name of her daughter (Chanel) with her own family name (Le). Business is booming - her Chanelle Nailbar became a household name when it was mentioned as the best nail studio in the Netherlands by the Dutch TV channel RTL.

According to the lawyer of Chanel, Ms. R. van der Straaten, she infringes on the IP of Chanel since Chanelle Nailbar profits from the appeal of the well-known Chanel brand. 

Chanel is willing to forfeit any claims, providing that Ms. Le changes her trade name to avoid confusion. The company understands that is was never Le’s intent to infringe on the IP of Chanel. That’s why Chanel is willing to find a new name together with Ms. Le. Chanel does however claim a penalty of 1,000 euro per day that Ms. Le keeps on using her Chanelle trade name, as well as 750 euro in legal fees.

Ms. Le is uncertain what to do. She is attached to the Chanelle trade name since it has personal and emotional value as well as commercial value.

The (social) media got involved - making all kinds of suggestions for new names such as “Chanaile” and “Nachelle”. A legal secretary of a law firm situated opposite of the nail studio used it as an opportunity to drum up business for her bosses and wrote that Ms. Le can drop in anytime for advice.

What do you think? Brands such as Chanel invest a lot of time and money to build and protect their brand, so it makes sense that they take an aggressive approach. But small entrepreneurs might also use a similar brand for legitimate reasons. 

Who is right in this case? The jury is out…

The German academic who ghostwrites for academics - Clever business, but morally…

Want to graduate but don’t want to write your thesis? No problem! If you study in Germany, you can hire the enterprising Ms. Eva Nowak. She runs a thriving business ghostwriting theses. Ms. Nowak started with helping graduates with their academic research. She soon found out that writing their theses (for a fee of course) presented a unique business opportunity.

She currently has a staff of Ph. D. academics in various fields, including law and social science. The work involves research and writing without (oh, irony) copying existing theses and sources that are IP protected.

Ms. Nowak operates in a grey area; it’s her students that are facing repercussions when caught, not her since she only facilitates. Interviewed on German television, one of her customers justified her hiring Nowak to help her graduate with flying colors a follows: “My dad passed away, I have three small kids. It was impossible to keep up.”

Nowak emphasized that people turn to her not because they are lazy, but since circumstances forced them. She did not address the ethical issue at any time during her TV interview.

I have my own take on this. For one, writing a thesis is a wonderful exercise that forces you as an academic to focus, study, research, analyze, execute, follow up, write, present and defend. It build skills that are priceless is anyone’s career.

Taking the “Nowak Shortcut” gives the “cheater” an unfair advantage over all those that put their own efforts in their theses. Furthermore, the ethics of such a person are questionable to say the least, so any university or employer should think twice before hiring such a person.

As for Ms. Nowak, she does not lose any sleep over it. She rakes in Euro 40 per page, which totals Euro 4,000 for a standard 100-page thesis. Not bad, since the turnaround time is 4 weeks. I calculate her monthly income at Euro 16,000 up.

My advice to universities and employers: let potential employees sign a statement that they never, ever, used ghostwriting and/or third party services to obtain and/or contribute to their academic credentials including, but not limited to, ghostwriting their theses…..all at the risk of being fired and facing a hefty penalty fee.

This blog post was written by Debra De-Jong, who wrote her own thesis all by herself (as it should be).

(Image courtesy of RTL Nord)