Real Life Jabot Fragrances

In 1991, we created Jabot: a soft, romantic, floral bouquet.  Now we've created Jabot No. 2: a delicate, passionate harmony of roses and violets in a surreptitious blend.  A legal conundrum has caused us to postpone the launch of the new Jabot fragrance.  However, a picture of the bottle has been posted on Facebook.  The link is on the sidebar.

The American Question

I wanted to address a question I’ve been asked several times in the last few days.

Question: You mentioned in one of your articles that you registered the Jabot trademark in the USA in 1990.  This week one of the soap stars launched Jabot facial creams on the Home Shopping Network.  Do you have any rights in the USA?

Answer: I did indeed register the Jabot trademark in the United States in 1990.  However, we didn’t have good retail connections in the States and that’s why I teamed up with the three American businessmen whom I mentioned earlier.  One of them had excellent retail connections. Unfortunately their negotiations with Sony went nowhere.

We held the trademark in the States for ten years and it expired.  Trademarks are registered to be used and our usage in the USA was very limited.  Therefore our chances of renewing the Jabot trademark in the States were slim.

My three American associates, Hal, Rick, and Jack, were quite capable of making Jabot a success in the States so I was suspicious of Sony’s reluctance towards our proposal.  I believed that Sony was interested in what we had to say but wanted to cut us out of the picture.  So I continued to keep an eye on Sony and guess what?  The US trademark is now owned by CPT Holdings Inc.  Sony Pictures Television, formerly Columbia Pictures Television, is a division of CPT Holdings.

The History of the Jabot Fragrance

Jabot was an orchestra of rose, jasmine, lily of the valley, and sandalwood.  It was bottled in black, French glass juxtaposed with white packaging, featuring Aphrodite slinging her magical arrow through the gold foil lettering.

The original television commercial aired on Global Television in 1991 during telecasts of “The Young & the Restless” soap opera: "Introducing Jabot, Genoa City's most exquisite fragrance; a soft, romantic, floral bouquet for women, from Jabot Cosmetics; now available to you. Call 1-800..."  The commercial is posted on the sidebar however the toll-free-number is no longer available.

The success of our direct marketing campaign opened the doors for us at the Canadian Home Shopping Network.  Jeanne Cooper acted as our spokesperson and her charm and elegance were second to none as we enjoyed a successful decade at CHSN.

During that time, Columbia Pictures Television was bought by Sony and Cynthia Wasney & Lester Borden were succeeded by Patrick Kelly & Andy Kaplan, respectively.

It was then that three American businessmen convinced me to come on board in their negotiations with Sony Pictures Television.  They approached Patrick Kelly with the same proposal that I had spearheaded a decade earlier:

“We believe viewers, who already have an interest & emotional investment in their favourite programs, have a desire to interact more closely with these programs through merchandise acquisition...The Y&R model allows viewers to vicariously experience life in Genoa City by purchasing Jabot cosmetics...The television industry is at the beginning stages of a modified return to the advertiser, studio, and network partnerships of the 1950’s...Such revenue streams have been successfully tapped in children’s and sports programming markets, but have been virtually unexploited in prime time & daytime television.”

Their negotiations never reached fruition but they left a huge paper trail.  In my last conversation with Patrick Kelly, he reminded me of the parameters laid down by his predecessors and informed me that Sony still had those letters on file.

  

The History of the Jabot Trademark

The developer of the name, Jabot, in relation to cosmetics was not the daytime soap opera but rather cosmetics giant, Coty Inc. of New York, New York. 

In 1908, Francois Coty founded Maison Coty, a perfume salon in Paris, France.  By 1912, he had opened a division on Fifth Avenue in New York City.  His rival, Lucien Lelong, was a Parisian fashion designer & perfumer. He expanded his operations to Chicago in 1928.  Lelong released a perfume in 1939 called Jabot.  In 1953, Coty took control of the Jabot trademark.  Today, Coty is the largest fragrance company in the world.

I operated a business under the trade name, Jabot Cosmetics, beginning in 1987.  I worked out of a post office box in Genoa City, Wisconsin and sold fragrances in the tourist mecca of Niagara-On-The-Lake, a quaint, little village not far from Niagara Falls.  That same year, I took over control of the Jabot trademark which I registered in Canada in 1989 and in the United States, a year later.  I also registered “Jabot for the young and the restless generation” in Canada.

In 1988, before registering the trademarks, I approached two executives from Columbia Pictures Television with a proposal.  Their responses were as follows:

“Your letter requests that a cosmetic product manufactured by your company be 'written into' the script for 'The Young and the Restless.'  Please be advised that the executive producers of the series have declined your proposal, and do not wish to utilize, endorse or make reference to Jabot Cosmetics, or any of its products.”

Cynthia Wasney: Attorney

“As per our conversation Friday, Columbia Pictures Merchandising is not interested in tying in 'The Young & the Restless' with your fragrance 'Jabot.'

“It should be further noted that we do not want to see any personal endorsements using actors from our show which in any way depicts their character names or association with 'The Young & the Restless,' in relation to your 'Jabot' cosmetic.”

Lester J. Borden: Vice President & General Manager

The irony in those responses amused me.  However, Columbia Pictures was convinced that Jabot was mine, to do with as I pleased, provided that I didn’t make any reference to the fictional entities in the soap opera.

Jabot: The Exploits of a Canadian Entrepreneur

Over the next few days, I will recount my exploits in a company I founded in 1987 called Jabot Cosmetics. I will include a history of the Jabot trademark as well as a history of the original Jabot fragrance that I created with the help of International Flavors + Fragrances & Leslie Cosmetics. The story is well documented in the company archives dating back some 25 years.