Boycott Called Against Spanish Newspaper Publishers' Association Titles In Protest Of New Copyright Law

3 Silly Years Later, Chik-Fil-A Loses Trademark Dispute Over Kale

from the eat-more-crow dept

Mon, Dec 15th 2014 9:03pm — Timothy Geigner

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.

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."

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.

"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

30 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 15 Dec 2014 @ 9:30pm

Maybe it took that long because of the break they took to be anti gay.
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Coyne Tibbets (profile), 15 Dec 2014 @ 10:32pm

Maybe it took that long to expound the difference between "leaf" and "feather".
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Dec 2014 @ 12:55am

Mike Masnick hates IP law.
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Dec 2014 @ 12:59am

Re:
I can only assume at this point that these comments are being made in an ironic fashion, on the assumption that they are amusing. They are not.
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Ninja (profile), 16 Dec 2014 @ 1:16am

Re:
Actually it seems he hates both kale and chickens. And likes to cross dress as Timothy Geigner (with an added Darth Vader helmet for added confusion).

Since I made more sense than you I'm voting myself insightful.
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Ninja (profile), 16 Dec 2014 @ 1:18am

I'd be kind of ashamed to be listed as the lawyer or the judge of this shit because... 3-year contemplation on the wonders and the difference of chicken, kale and t-shirts is lame.

And I don't even know what kale is.
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Dec 2014 @ 2:12am

Re:
It isn't chicken, apparently.
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DocGerbil100 (profile), 16 Dec 2014 @ 2:28am

Re:
It's a bit like cabbage, only more unpopular.
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Dec 2014 @ 3:45am

Re: Re:
Sadly, IP fanboys are really that stupid. I wouldn't be surprised if the usual trolls were rubbing their hands with glee, thinking they've scored another hit on "mean ol' Masnick".
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Dan J. (profile), 16 Dec 2014 @ 4:46am

Re:
Mike may or may not hate IP law but he's clearly biased against kale. "Tasteless leaves?" Kale is certainly not tasteless and if the dish served is in fact tasteless that's clearly an issue with the cook preparing the dish, not an inherent issue with kale. Let's put the blame where it properly belong and leave personal biases and prejudices out of the discussion.
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Michael, 16 Dec 2014 @ 5:03am

I've never eaten at a Chik-Fil-A, but I would have to assume that the confusion stems from their chicken being far more kale-like than I would want it to be.
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art guerrilla (profile), 16 Dec 2014 @ 5:28am

Re: Re:
you are right, it isn't tasteless, it is bitter and nasty...
8^)
broccoli rules ! ! !
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Dec 2014 @ 6:29am

The real winners
In any case, the lawyers won.
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Reality bites, 16 Dec 2014 @ 6:47am

It would have taken 3 years to explain it to the judge.
They were lucky they got a smart judge, the decade comment would have been based on a default judge, dumber than a post.
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Dark Helmet (profile), 16 Dec 2014 @ 7:23am

Re: Re:
Or maybe Mike didn't even write the post? Who can possibly know?
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PRMan, 16 Dec 2014 @ 7:50am

Re:
You mean the year they call, "The year of record profits"?
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Dec 2014 @ 8:01am

What does this say about Chick-Fil-A's customers?
If Chick-Fil-A is so concerned that their customer base can confuse chicken with kale, is this really implying that Chick-Fil-A thinks their customer base is nothing more than an uneducated group of color-blind, taste-impeded retards?

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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Stuart Gray, 16 Dec 2014 @ 8:01am

Good
I really like Chik-Fil-A. Great food and wonderful service. They seriously needed to lose this case though.
Happy everything worked out in the end. Just wish justice could be quicker.
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Unanimous Cow Herd, 16 Dec 2014 @ 8:11am

Re: Mike Masnick hates IP law.
Any sane person would. What's your point?
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Dec 2014 @ 8:37am

Now it's time for the much needed Bacon vs. Turkey Bacon (which is actually turkey strips, and a fact that turkey is having a serious identity crisis)
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John Fenderson (profile), 16 Dec 2014 @ 8:44am

Re: Re:
"Kale is certainly not tasteless"

True. Kale has a very noticeable taste. And it's NASTY.
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terry_allen (profile), 16 Dec 2014 @ 8:53am

Clearly Chik-Fil-A thought it had copyrighted the phrase "Eat more..."
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John Fenderson (profile), 16 Dec 2014 @ 9:19am

Re:
I love them both, but turkey bacon has a special benefit: since it's been precooked, you can eat it right out of the package without cooking -- which makes it very easy to completely gross out anyone who watches you gobble down the "raw" bacon.
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JoeCool (profile), 16 Dec 2014 @ 10:18am

Re: Re: Re:
I was about to post the same thing. Kale is really nasty tasting. Even the rabbits around here won't eat that crap. Give me spinach any time, just get that nasty kale out of here!
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Deadman Typing, 16 Dec 2014 @ 11:16am

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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Angela100 (profile), 16 Dec 2014 @ 12:07pm

instead of being snarky about Bo's comments about not ceasing and desisting, you should be reporting the bigger story which is little guys should not be intimidated and run out of business. Bo proved that persistence can pay off. Bo made the most of the publicity by reaching out to new customers, myself included, that chose to follow him on fb and support him by buying products. In this time, we have gotten to know Bo, his wife and kids and you know what? we really like them.
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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Anonymous Coward, 17 Dec 2014 @ 7:01am

Three Years Is not Unusual
Everyone seems to keep pointing at 3 years and proclaiming it was for determining that chicken and kale are different. However, typical time from filing to allowance without opposition is around two years, though I have seen it go as long as 2.5 years. So, the time to resolve the opposition was likely about a year. Most of that was likely because of correspondence between the parties as opposed to actual action.
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Crazy Canuck, 17 Dec 2014 @ 7:23am

It's probably something more simple.

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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Anonymous Coward, 17 Dec 2014 @ 10:49am

Re: Three Years Is not Unusual
It may not be "unusual" - however, that doesn't make it any less ridiculous.
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sara (profile), 17 Feb 2015 @ 12:27pm

According to USPTO records, the eat more kale trademark has not been issued. Why is it being reported that it has been issued?
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