By Richard Langston
When Kara Healey opened her cafe in Nelson there was no question what she'd call it.
"I chose brown sugar beacause basically I put brown sugar in everything that I make," she said.
"We researched it quite a bit and found a lot of brown sugar cafes around the world."
So in June last year Kara opened the House of Brown Sugar.
"I thought it was quite different with the House of Brown Sugar."
But another cafe has taken exception to Kara using the term - not in Nelson, but hundreds of kilometres away in the middle of the North Island
The Brown Sugar Café in Taihape told Kara her café could not be called that as it was too close to their name.
The Brown Sugar Café - which also has a branch in Otaki just north of Wellington - has forced two other businesses to drop the term from their name.
Auckland caterer Dianne Fraser knows how vigorously the Brown Sugar Café will pursue the issue.
She ran the Brown Sugar Kitchen when she got the lawyer's letter from Taihape.
Dianne said she felt it was unreasonable.
"It didn't seem right they could hog the name brown sugar," she said.
Dianne went to court, and she lost. She said 'ok, we'll change our name to the Pink Sugar Kitchen' and she did.
But then she was told she couldn't have any other colour in her name.
So ten thousand dollars in lawyers fees - and two name changes later - her business is called The Cake Stall, and she'd prefer to forget the whole episode.
"It was really upsetting," she said.
Dianne's advice to Kara is as unreasonable as it might seem, don't fight it. It probably easier to change your name.
And as long as the name of Kara's business is so similar to an established business it is going to be a problem in the eyes of the law.
Kara's a bit stunned it's come to lawyers and the threat of court.
This week she got another lawyers letter giving her 48 hours to agree to change her name. Reluctantly she says she'll probably have to.
She advices other new business owners to choose their names carefully.