Guy Sued Over Trademark On 'Fruit Of The Month Club' Turns Around And Sues Others Over 'Cheese Of The Month Club'

from the wrong-lesson-learned dept

Fri, Jan 14th 2011 4:34am — Mike Masnick

Sometimes people who are sued over highly questionable copyright, patent or trademark laws turn into activists against the abuse of those laws (or against those laws altogether). At other times... the opposite occurs, and they realize that if others can abuse the law to their own benefit, they might as well too. Eric Goldman has the story of a guy, Anshu Pathak, who was sued a few years ago for offering a Fruit of the Month Club, which the company Harry & David claimed infringed on their own trademark. While Pathak fought this, now he's turned around and done pretty much the same thing, suing a bunch of companies, including Harry & David, over his own trademark on "Cheese of the Month Club." Apparently he more or less copied one of the earlier lawsuits. He includes Google, Microsoft and Yahoo in the lawsuit because of keyword ad sales on the term -- an argument that's unlikely to get very far.

Of course, Goldman does a nice job of expressing (with only slightly uncharacteristic exasperation) how silly this whole thing is:

What a load of nonsense. The world would be a better place if we just declared the phrase "[food] of the month club" generic so that no one could claim a trademark in it. Even if the phrase once was descriptive and thus capable of secondary meaning, it has become genericized through overuse. In contrast, so long as we recognize trademark rights in watered-down descriptive terms like "[Food] of the month clubs," we get bogus disputes between companies with crummy trademarks, all of them tearing each other down rather than actually doing a better job for their customers. What a shame.

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Filed Under: anshu pathak, cheese of the month club, fruit of the month club, of the month, trademark

15 Comments

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Any Mouse (profile), 14 Jan 2011 @ 5:28am

Heh. That was pretty much my thought when I saw the title of this. ' of the month' has been around for a long, long time. I can't think of ever having connected it to any one company.
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Jan 2011 @ 5:53am

Announcing...
The Techdirt "Post of the month" club
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Jan 2011 @ 6:02am

Can't lick them, then join them. What's the big deal? Sounds like Pathak is just dealing with reality.
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Jan 2011 @ 6:09am

Dumb@$$ of the month:; Anshu Pathak
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Jan 2011 @ 6:31am

The Fruit of the Loom guys are on the sidelines, sharpening their weapons...
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Shane C (profile), 14 Jan 2011 @ 6:40am

Abuse
This is an interesting psychological twist on an abuse victim. Children being abused growing up, often (NOT ALWAYS) go on to either be anti-abuse activists, or they go on to abuse their own children.

In this simile, the guy was abused, so now feels the need to go about abusing others?
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Joe Club, 14 Jan 2011 @ 6:50am

Eureka!
I wonder if "Theme of the Month Club" has been Trademarked. I would totally defend my legal rights for the advertising and branding for any club based off of a monthly theme.
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Lion XL (profile), 14 Jan 2011 @ 7:23am

I see his
I like his approach, and it may help draw attention to the stupidity of such claims. Pathak may or may not be serious, but it will give this nonsense the exposure it needs and since this is something the general public can understand (most of them should) that 'of the month' is beyond being copyright-able, it very well may help things
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Jan 2011 @ 8:21am

I'm starting a Time of the Month Club. Who wants to join?

*crickets*

Well, screw you then!

*doorslam*

*muffled sobbing*
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jjmsan (profile), 14 Jan 2011 @ 8:23am

Re:
I think half of the human population already has.
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Chronno S. Trigger (profile), 14 Jan 2011 @ 8:26am

Re:
"Sounds like Pathak is just dealing with reality."

Sounds to me like he's doing the exact opposite of dealing with reality. Seems like he's a little delusional to my untrained eye.
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Jan 2011 @ 10:08am

Trademark of the Month club: mine now, suckers.
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Adrian Lopez, 14 Jan 2011 @ 10:27am

I'm reminded of Microsoft's recent objection to Apple's intent to trademark the term "App Store".

Descriptive terms should never be eligible for trademark protection, secondary meaning or not. If something describes an item or service in such a way that a person seeing it would understand what it's referring to even if the brand did not exist, it shouldn't be subject to trademark protection.
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AG Wright (profile), 15 Jan 2011 @ 6:22am

I can't help but think about the cheese of the month club that my parents were customers of when I was in high school back in the 60's.
I think that there is a problem with the whole trademark system when this can even be litigated.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 May 2011 @ 4:30pm

The guy's a freak show.

He's also a convicted felon.

Riverside County Superior Court, Case # RIF131496
Anshu Pathak was convicted of a felony, inflicting serious corporal injury on a child, with enhancements for using a deadly weapon in the commission of the felony. Pathak served one year in jail, commencing 12/07/07, and is on formal probation until 12/12/2012
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