IHOP Drops Trademark Lawsuit Against IHOP

from the will-they-settle-it-over-a-prayer-breakfast? dept

Thu, Jan 6th 2011 1:06am — Mike Masnick

Back in September, we noted that restaurant chain IHOP (International House of Pancakes) was suing another IHOP (International House of Prayer), claiming trademark infringement. Trademarks are supposed to only cover the areas of commerce you're in, but IHOP (food) claimed that since IHOP (church) was serving food at some of its locations, it represented infringement. We doubted that there was much likelihood of confusion between the Rooty Tooty Fresh 'n' Fruity menu option and saving your eternal soul. Copycense alerts us to the news that IHOP (food) has now dropped the lawsuit against the church, as the two sides have agreed to settle the matter out of court, at what I can only guess will be a combination prayer breakfast and negotiation session.

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Filed Under: trademark
Companies: ihop

8 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 6 Jan 2011 @ 3:27am

don't forget the lunch and dinner selections that IHOP offers

lunch and dinner prayers of course...

at the house of prayer that is...
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Joe (profile), 6 Jan 2011 @ 5:14am

And some people wonder why people dislike lawyers.
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Anonymous Coward, 6 Jan 2011 @ 7:12am

Rooty Tooty Fresh 'n' Fruity menu option and saving your eternal soul

Sometimes food and religion can overlap. What about the Pastafarians? Besides, I've heard the Rooty Tooty Fresh 'n' Fruity referred to as 'heavenly' at least once in my life. I think they would have stood a very good chance.
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- Gabriel Tane (profile), 6 Jan 2011 @ 7:59am
  
  Re:
  I was about to say... maybe the RTF&F breakfast is just that good.
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Anonymous Coward, 6 Jan 2011 @ 7:41am

I like the International House of Potheads
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- Gabriel Tane (profile), 6 Jan 2011 @ 8:51am
  
  Re:
  Actually, I think that would be abbreviated IHOPH... which would be pronounced "eye-hoff". And the last thing you want is a bunch of German Hasslehoff fans banging down your door.
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TheRegulator (profile), 6 Jan 2011 @ 4:04pm

IHOP and Dilution
Did the commercial IHOP assert a claim based on dilution? As I recall, if the trademark is a household name, others cannot use it, regardless of marketplace confusion, because such use would dilute the value of the trademark. Another consideration is trademark abandonment, a la Kleenex and Xerox. As scary as the suit sounds, it might have been seen as necessary posturing to protect the mark in the future.

This may have been one of those very rare case in which corp. counsel acted properly. As for me, I'm a Denny's lover.
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AutoTweet (profile), 16 Jan 2011 @ 12:05pm

Dumb. If you pray over a meal of pancakes at the restaurant are you interferring with the church's role.
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