As it is widely known, the French national rail freight operator Fret SNCF will be put to death at the end of this year and replaced with Hexafret and Technis, which will take care respectively of operations and maintenance. However, there now seems to be a problem with Technis’ name. A company with the same name is already trademarked in France and, ironically enough, it has already worked with SNCF.
The ‘first’ Technis is a Swiss software company which opened a French subsidiary in 2018 and officially registered in the country in 2022. The CEO of this company, Wiktor Bourée, has already voiced his disapproval, saying that the company is already talking to its lawyers. In an interview with French media BFMTV, he highlighted that SNCF filed for the company name Technis while already in talks with the same-name company already existing.
‘There is no way to reconcile’
What happens next seems to be anyone’s guess. “They (SNCF, ndr) are trying to save time and are offering us nothing”, Bourée added, claiming that damage has already been done. The company ranking on Google dropped, and confused customers are reaching out. “We have to protect our brand, we won’t give up. There are precedents of similar brands, but here, the case is quite unique, because they are taking the name of one of their suppliers”, Bourée added.