A downer on the Christchurch Pop-Up Mall as London Company looks at taking legal action against use of the idea.
What a great idea to get Christchurch up and running! As far as the majority of New Zealander’s are concerned, the Pop-up mall project in Christchurch is a great way to support the retailers that lost their stores in the earthquakes - plus to top it off it’s a quirky idea that’s sure to turn heads and get consumers out and about in the build up to Christmas.
However, there’s been a slight hickup in the project, as reported by Inside Retailing today. London’s Boxpark Development is looking into legal action following claims that this idea is a world first. Read the story below. What do you think??
A unique pop-up retail concept aimed at bringing retailing back to the quake-devastated Christchurch CBD is due to open on Saturday.
But it’s under a legal threat from a London developer claiming the Christchurch plan to house retail stores in shipping containers is a copy of its proprietary idea.
According to website Business Day, the director of London’s Boxpark development, Roger Wade, has emailed the organisers of City Mall Restart alleging “blatant breach of the Boxpark intellectual property rights”.
He said Boxpark has instigated legal action against City Mall’s owners on the grounds of “intellectual property rights infringement”.
Given the circumstances of the Christchurch project - bringing retailing back to a city centre where more than 200 people lost their lives in an earthquake in February - the Londoners look like attracting some of the worst press of any UK company this year.
Boxpark is a project planned for the London suburb of Shoreditch. It’s hard to envisage how a company could claim work rights to the concept of using refurbished shipping containers to host pop-up stores.
The Christchurch plan will host 27 shops in 60 shipping containers in what City Mall describes as a “pop-up mall”.
Tim Glasson, a director of the Christchurch project, is understood to have met with Wade and discussed the concept in April.
From news coverage in New Zealand it appears the dispute may be related more to City Mall’s promotion of the idea as a world first pop-up mall than the direct copying of the actual concept. References to “pop-up mall” have been removed from publicity since the email from Wade.
Iconic Christchurch department store Ballantynes is one of the 27 retailers to tenant the mall which will trade from 10am to 6pm Monday to Saturday and until 5pm on Sundays
http://www.insideretail.com.au/IR/IRNews/Retail-returns-to-Christchurch-CBD-2914.aspx
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