Ben-sued and lost: Ruben Onsu defeated in legal battle over ayam geprek

Indonesian TV host-turned-entrepreneur Ruben Onsu filed a lawsuit against a competing ayam geprek chain named I Am Geprek Bensu Sedep Beneerrr (literal translation: I Am Geprek Bensu Really Tastyyy), which, as one can see, also uses the Bensu name. Photos: Instagram/@ruben_onsu and Facebook/I Am Geprek Bensu
Indonesian TV host-turned-entrepreneur Ruben Onsu filed a lawsuit against a competing ayam geprek chain named I Am Geprek Bensu Sedep Beneerrr (literal translation: I Am Geprek Bensu Really Tastyyy), which, as one can see, also uses the Bensu name. Photos: Instagram/@ruben_onsu and Facebook/I Am Geprek Bensu

Indonesian TV host-turned-entrepreneur Ruben Onsu may be renowned in the culinary scene as the owner of the ubiquitous ayam geprek (smashed fried chicken with spicy sambal) restaurant chain Geprek Bensu, but he has lost the exclusive rights to the Bensu name, even if, as he argued, it’s an abbreviation of his name.

Related: Where to find the spiciest ‘ayam geprek’ places in Jakarta

In 2018, Ruben filed a lawsuit against a competing ayam geprek chain named I Am Geprek Bensu Sedep Beneerrr (literal translation: I Am Geprek Bensu Really Tastyyy), which, as one can see, also uses the Bensu name. 

But Ruben lost the legal battle in the Central Jakarta Commercial Court then as the court ruled that he has no exclusive right to the Bensu name. The owner of I Am Geprek Bensu, Benny Sujono, also has a name that could be abbreviated to Bensu.

The final nail in the coffin for Ruben came after the Supreme Court (MA) rejected Ruben’s appeal.

“[The court] rejects the plaintiff’s lawsuit to the fullest extent,” the verdict reads, as quoted from the MA’s official website today.

The court also declared that I Am Geprek Bensu was registered as a business entity before Geprek Bensu. The ruling effectively cancelled Geprek Bensu’s exclusive trademark over the Bensu name, as previously registered with the Ministry of Law and Human Rights.

The legal battle between Ruben Onsu and I Am Geprek Bensu started in 2017, when the first I Am Geprek Bensu restaurant opened in North Jakarta’s Pademangan in April of that year.

The attorney for Benny Sujono, Eddie Kusuma, said that Ruben was hired as a brand ambassador to promote I Am Geprek Bensu in May 2017 before the celebrity later claimed that the Bensu name is an abbreviation of his name and launching his own restaurant chain.

 

Also Read: Copyright vs Right to Copy: How Superman, IKEA, and other global brands lost trademark battles in Indonesia



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