Independent veterinary practices unite against IVC legal threats
IVC has extended the compliance deadline until the 31st December 2025.
More than 150 veterinary professionals have joined forces against legal threats from IVC Evidensia over the use of the term ‘pet health club’.
Earlier this year, IVC sent out letters to a number of independent veterinary practices, claiming trademarks on two ‘Pet Health Club’ logos and the phrase ‘Pet Health Club’ — maintaining that it has been used as a trading name since 2015.
Since then, IVC has sent follow-up letters to a number of practices to offer a stay of execution and extended the compliance deadline until the 31st December 2025. The collective cost to rebrand so many ‘Pet Health Clubs’ is estimated to be between £250,000 and £350,000.
In response, a support group named ‘We are Spartacus’ was set up to unite all the affected practices, as well as the wider veterinary community. The group has since appointed an intellectual property lawyer to provide specialist advice on whether the term could be protected with a word mark.
Group member Alex Green of Broadway Vets said that while IVC has extended its compliance deadline, the group is still concerned with how the organisation has gone about contacting veterinary practices. He urged those who have not yet come forward to show their support for ‘We are Spartacus’.
“We’re also keen to hear from those that received initial letters and haven’t yet had a follow-up offering a stay of execution until the end of the year,” he said. “Whilst we’re delighted that IVC has extended their deadline, it does not resolve the fact that their threats are unacceptable when every practice in the country provides animal, or ‘pet’, healthcare, or ‘health’, in a community-based service, or ‘club’.
“They don’t need to fight or worry about this on their own and we’re stronger as a collective, especially when it comes to pooling resources and expertise. We’ve already appointed a specialist IP lawyer to advise us, and the view is that given the extensive prior use of ‘Pet Health Club,’ it would be crazy to allow this to escalate to court when it can be amicably resolved.”
With Strangles Awareness Week just around the corner (5-11 May), vets are being encouraged to share a survey about the disease with their horse-owning clients.
