Māori organisations and iwi invest significant time and money developing and growing their brands. 

What happens if, after all that hard work, another organisation (often a rival) enters the market using similar branding?

This can cause confusion to the public and potential economic loss, and will usually amount to infringement of your trade mark. 

A first step to enforce your rights against others is to issue Cease and Desist correspondence to the rival.  This correspondence outlines the nature of the infringement and requests that the rival “cease” using similar branding, and “desist” from doing so in the future.

Usually, by taking this step in the first instance the issue can be resolved, because organisations often choose brands for themselves without proper research and legal advice. Cease and Desist correspondence wakes them up to the commercial realities and they tend to belatedly get proper advice and back off.