A wink
In Schooljaren, the main characters drink a Capri Sun every day during the school break. Van der Kwast and his publisher thought it would be a nice idea to do something with that on the cover. Van der Kwast calls it “a wink to Capri Sun”. Unfortunately, Capri Sun did not want to see that wink. When the publisher contacted them about a collaboration with a giveaway campaign (“Win a year’s supply of Capri Sun”), Capri Sun responded negatively and asked for the cover to be changed.
No fight
The publisher did not dare to take on Capri Sun and decided to adjust the cover. Still a drink pouch with a straw, but with a very different design. Problem solved.
Should De Bezige Bij have shown more courage here? If the publisher was looking for some free publicity, perhaps. After all, the newspaper headline “Capri Sun wants to ban novel Schooljaren” could certainly boost sales considerably. However, I still think the publisher made a sensible decision here.
Trademarks on covers
The use of a famous trademark on the cover of a book more often leads to disputes. For example, there was once a disagreement between Jack Daniels and writer Patrick Wensink about his book Broken Piano for President. Publicist David Thorne also ran into trouble with Penguin over his book I’ll go home then, it’s warm and has chairs.
Valid reason
Whether the use of a famous trademark on the cover of a book constitutes trademark infringement is, in the Benelux, usually determined by the answer to the question of whether there is a due cause to use the trademark. Any such due cause is closely linked to the content of the book. If you write a critical book about Coca Cola, then there may well be a due cause to depict the Coca-Cola trademark, as was done, for example, for the book The Coke Machine. After all, that book is about Coca Cola. However, if the only connection between the content and the cover is that the main character drinks a Capri Sun every day, that is probably a little too thin to establish due cause. In my view, therefore, this was a sensible decision by the publisher and writer.
Bas Kist
