According to the decision, selling the product without the necessary permission is not fair on competitors. Using the name IQ drink is misleading for consumers. What they actually associate the name with is relevant in this case rather than the ideas of the marketing manager. And this name attributes to the product special properties which it doesn't actually have.

Based on the above mentioned arguments, the Jury (Versenytanács) immediately forbid WÉS Rt to use the word "IQ" or "energy drink" on its product (packaged in Tetra Brik) and imposed a fine of 3 millions HUF on the company for violating the law.

The unsuspecting consumer pays 190 HUF for the product, drinks it unsuspectingly and expects the promised effects. It is claimed on the label that "the IQ drink takes energy to the brain by shortening the digestive process". This statement might have two different meanings: one is that of the producer (the IQ drink refreshes you while you study) the other one is mine: after drinking it a smart person makes a bullet for the toilet.

It was also clarified during the court proceeding that the product was called "modified milk" in order to avoid the word "cheese whey" which might call up "negative associations"in the public mind. The piquancy of the story lies in the fact that while draining off the cheese whey into the public sewage is a fineable offence, it is different if it is boxed and used as an ingredient. Naturally I do not mean that the drink was made from an ingredient which is harmful to health - simply that the jury's ruling that advertisements be correct and accurate needs to be stressed.

In my letter to the Jury I also wrote about the way the company used the TV series "Spacegammas" and "Xenia Craze Society"s presence in schools to popularize and sell their product. The latter was accompanied by political scandals and illegal secret investigations. Political aspects of thecase were not discussed either in the proceeding or afterwards. It dealt only with the violation of consumer rights. The representative of the company evaluated the decision as "an outrage against competitive rights in Hungary". I think IQ is responsible for this reaction. (IQ = I. Quack)

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What does IQ mean?

The entrepreneur protected himself by saying that while the name "IQ" was rejected by the Jury, the Jury had not examined what it really meant. He thinks that it might mean:

• I QUEEN (from the series Spacegammas)
• International QUEEN
• I QUAKE
• International QUAKE
• I QUESTION
• International QUESTION
• IQ (first radionavigating Q code)
• I QUICK
• International QUICK
• International QUUEST
• And perhaps I QUOTIENT

IQ letters were chosen to make the product marketable - said the manager of the WES Rt to the Jury - it sounds good, looks good when written, and is not protected by law (it is by now). Otherwise it does not mean anything. It happened by chance that these two letters got together, they have nothing to do with each other. It could have been AT or IU or anything else ( WC -as we know- is already taken!)