3 Silly Years Later, Chik-Fil-A Loses Trademark Dispute Over Kale
from the eat-more-crow dept
A long time ago, in a Techdirt far, far away...well, okay, it was only three years ago and it was right here at the same Techdirt, but Mike wrote about Chik-Fil-A, known purveyors of de-feathered chicken bits, opposing a trademark registration by an artist in Vermont for "Eat more kale." Why a company that sells dead fowl thought it had an issue of customer confusion on its hands over some t-shirts that suggest people consume more tasteless leaves is beyond me, but it happened. And, now, three damned years later, the legal battle is over and kale has defeated chickens.
Bo Muller-Moore said Thursday that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted his application to trademark "eat more kale," a phrase he says promotes local agriculture. He silk-screens the phrase on T-shirts and sweatshirts and prints them on bumper stickers that are common in Vermont and beyond.Instead, it only took a 3rd of a decade, which sounds better, but renders me to the exact same frustrating question of what the hell? Chicken is meat and kale isn't. Anyone confused by the concepts of chicken and kale is not a moron in a hurry, they're criminally insane. For it to take years to resolve this is absolutely asinine. It's quite nice to hear that Muller-Moore was willing to stand on principle rather than cave to the demands of a corporate entity, but come on, this can't be what the framers of trademark law had in mind.
When asked what he felt caused the trademark office to approve his application, Muller-Moore, of Montpelier, said, "Your guess is as good as mine." The news was posted on the office's website Tuesday. "I'd like to think that maybe some persistence and polite defiance, you know, and proving to them that we were in it for the long haul," he said. "If it took us a decade, we're going to fight for a decade."
"In our case, we said we're not going to cease and desist until a federal judge tells us to and as far as the trademark goes, I never wavered from the idea that I deserved protection from copycat artists," Muller-Moore said.Easy, champ, we were just starting to like you. One wonders how much money was spent on the legal process to get us to a 3-year-conclusion that kale and chicken are significantly different?
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Filed Under: eat more kale, kale, trademark
Companies: chik-fil-a
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Since I made more sense than you I'm voting myself insightful.
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8^)
broccoli rules ! ! !
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True. Kale has a very noticeable taste. And it's NASTY.
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Re: Mike Masnick hates IP law.
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And I don't even know what kale is.
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The real winners
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It would have taken 3 years to explain it to the judge.
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What does this say about Chick-Fil-A's customers?
To be clear, I don't think that, but then again, I wasn't making the argument that chicken and kale can be confused.
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Good
Happy everything worked out in the end. Just wish justice could be quicker.
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vote
One wonders how much money was spent on the legal process to get us to a 3-year-conclusion that kale and chicken are significantly different?
"
Can we vote the original author as funny?
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He started this process because there were rip off artists out there making his t-shirts and making it look like they were from his company when they were not. Now that to me is what the laws are supposed to protect trademarks for.
I am so pleased that Bo has finally won this case. The lesson? Don't let yourself get pushed around.
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Three Years Is not Unusual
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Re: Three Years Is not Unusual
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Assuming a person is not adding to their overall food intake, "Eat more kale" would mean "Eat less chicken." Just another example of a company trying to defend their business model. =P
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