Legal Fight Over Billboards About Trademarks On The Hotness Of Your Wife

from the and-air-conditioning dept

Wed, Jan 27th 2010 10:38am — Mike Masnick

This one's a bit old, but somewhat amusing. Chris Mikaitis alerted us to the story of an air conditioning company suing another air conditioning company for trademark infringement over competing billboards. Apparently, the first air conditioning company came up with a billboard advertising campaign that read, in large letters:

"YOUR WIFE IS HOT -- BETTER GET YOUR A/C FIXED."

The competing company put up its own billboards, that read:

"YOUR WIFE IS NOT HOT! Because you called All Year Cooling to replace your A/C rather than the other guys."

This seems like a pretty amusing response. While the first company claims trademark infringement, suggesting confusion, it seems like perfectly reasonable competition. I'm reminded of a billboard that Informix put out a decade or so ago right in front of Oracle on the side of highway 101 in Silicon Valley reading "You just passed Oracle. So did we." It was amusing (if not particularly accurate), but as an advertising dig at a competitor, it seemed perfectly reasonable.

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Filed Under: billboards, trademark

17 Comments

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Joe, 27 Jan 2010 @ 11:22am

more recent billboard fight between Audi and BMW. Bimmer got a good zing in.

http://37signals.com/svn/posts/1675-santa-monica-bmws-checkmate
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Jan 2010 @ 11:54am

Re:
Made my day!
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icepick314, 27 Jan 2010 @ 12:09pm

I'm sorry to act like a moron in a hurry but WHAT trademark infringement?

it seems like couple of grade school kids calling names....on a billboard....with advertisement....
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Skout (profile), 27 Jan 2010 @ 1:23pm

Actually, Bentley got the best jab in, if you ask me..

http://www.thetalentjungle.com/hospitality_blog/index.php/archive/1/index.php/item/279
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ChrisB (profile), 27 Jan 2010 @ 2:39pm

Re:
That was a good find, made me laugh.
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ChurchHatesTucker (profile), 27 Jan 2010 @ 5:31pm

Re:
Yeah, is "Your wife is hot" a trademarked?

And even if it was, "Your wife is NOT hot" doesn't appear to cause confusion in the market, even amongst those scurrying imbeciles that we apparently have to cater to.

Bonus question, how much could they extract from a movie where the character said that line? ("That's implying that our HVAC company endorsed this movie!")
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Jan 2010 @ 8:23pm

:) reminds me of a coke-pepsi fight 15 years back in india during the cricket world cup. coke went to town about how it had managed to become the official drink for the cup; pepsi took that and turned it on its head with an immensely popular campaign: Pepsi - Nothing Official About It.

this is just smart advertising oneupmanship at work.
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Steven, 27 Jan 2010 @ 9:37pm

Re:
Lam the F*ck Oh. That made my day.
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Steven, 27 Jan 2010 @ 9:37pm

Re:
Lam the F*ck Oh. That made my day.
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jessy, 28 Jan 2010 @ 4:58am

this was great do more stuff like this
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duprey, 28 Jan 2010 @ 4:58am

cool
what was this person thinking
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Mustofa, 28 Jan 2010 @ 4:58am

wow
this is radiculous... so funny but really stupid. need to get a hoby.
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dman23, 28 Jan 2010 @ 4:59am

what
what was this person thinking
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Mustofa, 28 Jan 2010 @ 5:00am

Duprey
youre stupid. obviously you are drunk
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duprey, 28 Jan 2010 @ 5:01am

78
ur hi! mustofa
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Mustofa, 28 Jan 2010 @ 5:01am

Duprey
you're drunk... ass
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Feb 2010 @ 4:04am

Re:
And where is the legal action??
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