Madame Figaro the English teacher launches campaign against French magazine

In her written reply, she said: “I’m not using the brand Madame Figaro,
it’s quite simply my surname. Now if my modest teacher’s blog is harming
your notorious brand, far be it from me to put you in the shade.”

She pointed out that teachers and pupils were in the habit of calling her “Madame
Figaro”, and she had no intention of adding her first name to the blog
title.

Unmoved, Le Figaro responded that her blog “trivialises the brand”
and threatened to sue her for “brand counterfeiting”, a crime
punishable by a maximum three-year prison term and 300,000-euro fine.

At a loss, the teacher wrote: “I have neither the stature nor the means
to take on these people in the courts, so I have taken the decision to
modify the name of my blog.”

“It’s a fight between a ladybird and an elephant and the ladybird who
doesn’t want to get crushed flies away to other horizons,” she wrote on
her blog, which she renamed Learning in Progress.

But her fight to keep her name sparked a fierce backlash on Twitter and
Facebook, where supporters cast ridicule on the Le Figaro press group.

One wrote: “I’ve just been informed that a certain Mozart has also got
hold of your name for one of his operas! Act fast before it is tainted!”.

Another, Chrisopher Courtois tweeted: “The Paris Opera has announced a
performance of The Mariage of Figaro on 15 September. Quick, a lawsuit!”.

Taken aback by the snowballing “bad buzz”, Le Figaro yesterday
announced it had dropped legal proceedings and sent an email to the “real”
Madame Figaro.

It said was “sorry” for the incident and promised to ensure both
could “live this homonymy in good humour”.

The message was addressed to “Madame Figaro”.

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