The Vanilla Ninja trademark, familiar to Eurovision Song Contest fans from the band's participation for Switzerland in the 2005 contest, has been finally sold through an Estonian auction site. The band, though, retain the right to continue using the name for their musical activities.
This is the second time in their history the Estonian band sees their trademark auctioned and also the second time it changes hands after it was conceived by band member Piret Järvis and the first producer of the band, Sven Lõhmus, in 2002. The first time the Vanilla Ninja trademark changed owners was in September 2007 when it was transferred to Oulson Outsourcing OU. Soon afterwards it was put up for sale on ebay but the starting price, an outrageous $44,500, was never reached. It was put up back for sale once more, on osta.ee, 2 weeks ago at a much lower starting price and it was finally sold to the highest bidder (who remains anonymous) for €4.400.
The new owner can use the trademark for products but not for musical activities as the band retain the right to that. The market has already seen Vanilla Ninja ice cream and kohuke (popular Baltic snack) so who knows what's next?
