Caterpillar Now Going After All The Cats For Trademark Cancellations

from the meowsers dept

A couple of weeks back, we discussed the story of Caterpillar Inc., famous manufacturers of tractor equipment, deciding to bully Cat & Cloud Coffee, makers of you'll-never-guess-what, all because the former had long ago trademarked "CAT" as a truncated brand. At issue specifically is Cat & Cloud's use of the word "cat" on clothing and merchandise it sells, with Caterpillar claiming there is the potential for public confusion with its own clothing and merch lines. This is, of course, plainly ridiculous. There is no overlap in the branding and nobody is going to confuse the tractor folks with the coffee folks.

Others pointed out that there are tons of other companies out there that sell apparel and/or merch while holding trademarks that incorporate the word "cat." If those other companies are allowed to exist, why not Cat & Cloud? Caterpillar Inc. heard you dear friends, but its response is probably not the one you were hoping for.

According to the US Patent and Trademark Office, Cat & Cloud is among 174 registered trademarks including the word "cat". Caterpillar has filed 125 cancellation petitions so far including one to internet sensation Keyboard Cat. You may have been one of the 150-million viewers of the viral video of a feline, clad in a blue shirt, playing the piano.

Charlie Schmidt, Creator of Keyboard Cat and www.keyboardcat.com spoke to us about his ordeal.

"I'm just a poor artist trying to you know, maintain my integrity! Who wants to hurt a tractor company just by having a cat!?"

So, yeah, Caterpillar has expanded its trademark bullying out to encompass more small businesses. It is again defending its actions by saying they are only targeted for apparel trademarks, but that still isn't good enough. It's virtually impossible to believe that all 125 trademarks for the apparel in question comprise uses that would actually cause any real public confusion. Instead, this is obviously a corporate legal team pulling out the legal shotgun and just spraying buckshot everywhere it can.

For Cat & Cloud, at least, its story is getting some public attention.

Customers including tech titan Guy Kawasaki, former Chief Evangelist for Apple and current Chief Evangelist for Canva, is getting behind the café, leveraging his millions of online followers to join the effort.

"Sometimes you have to stand up for something. For the principal of it. And this is one of those times."

Actress Sophia Bush has also weighed in on Instagram to help Cat & Cloud.

Now we just have to marshal forces for the hundred-plus other victims of Caterpillar's bullying, I suppose.

Filed Under: cat, cats, charlie schmidt, keyboard cat, trademark, trademark bullying
Companies: cat & cloud, caterpillar

Caterpillar Inc. Bullies Cat And Cloud Coffee Shop Over Its Store's Apparel

from the who's-confused? dept

One of the more frustrating aspects of the intersection of trademarks and business is how blind the law seems to be when it comes to recognizing the primary market in which a company operates. This is specifically an issue when it comes to merch and apparel, as many companies build up brand loyalty in their primary markets and then also move to sell clothing to those loyal fans. This all makes sense until these same companies get the USPTO to grant overly-broad trademarks for those ancillary markets, which are then used to bully smaller companies with the excuse being, "Hey, we have to protect our marks, or we lose them."

A perfect example of this is the dispute currently going on between Caterpillar Inc., famed makers of tractor equipment and the like, and Cat & Cloud Coffee, which slings java.

The large corporation has trademarked "CAT" and has taken legal action against the small business to stop them from using it. Owners of the small business say they first received the letter in August of 2018.

"It seemed ridiculous. So, we responded and got a lawyer,obviously," said Jared Truby, co-owner of Cat and Cloud Coffee. "We asked them to further explain their case, asked them to drop it as we are in a completely different industry. They didn't want to, so we went back and forth a few times and called them out for bullying."

Truby says when they opened the shop almost three years ago, they couldn't have predicted something like this happening.

"Could anybody imagine a $54 billion machinery company coming after a coffee company? I don't think that's even in the cards," said Truby. "The first biggest thing they want us to do is not print the name Cat and Cloud on anything again. I think that is unbelievable. I don't think that's going to hold up."

For its part, Caterpillar has pushed back on the outcry over this, pointing out that the only trademark it is disputing is Cat & Cloud's use of the word "cat" on merch and apparel, as Caterpillar sells an absolute ton of this stuff itself. It's an attempt at claiming its being reasonable, but it very much is not.

First, a trademark on the the acronym "CAT" is plainly insane if it's going to be used against apparel that uses the word "cat." I would hope that is obvious to everyone. Such a generic trademark is simply not justified. On top of that, the coffee shop's use of the word is a reference to a literal cat. The CAT mark, on the other hand, is a reference to a caterpillar. So we're not even in the same taxonomic family. As you might expect, the branding on Cat & Cloud's apparel looks nothing like Caterpillar's.

It all kind of has that cutesy motif that is well suited for a coffee shop with a cute name and terribly suited if you're trying to fool the public into thinking you're a tractor company. Nobody looking at anything the shop sells on its site is going to somehow think Caterpillar is involved.

Which doesn't mean the bullying won't work. As is always the case in situations like this, the expense to defend itself could force Cat & Cloud's hand.

"I guess the good news is if somebody is intimidated by our small little company in Santa Cruz, it means we're doing something right," said Truby. "It leads me to believe we're doing something that's far more important than I can see right now."

Truby says they've spent nearly $10,000 already dealing with this case. He says not being able to sell apparel for extra income will have an impact on both employees and the business.

Here's hoping they get the support to stick this out. Or that someone at Catepillar gets a whiff of this and wants to craft a PR win for itself by ceasing this bullying behavior.

Filed Under: bulldozers, cat, clothing, coffee, construction equipment
Companies: cat & cloud coffee, caterpiller

DailyDirt: Are You Smarter Than A Dolphin?

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

We may think we're pretty smart, but animals like dolphins are pretty smart too. For over 30 years, scientists have been trying to determine how smart dolphins really are. Bottlenose dolphins have a brain-to-body-weight ratio that is only second to humans, and they also have a very complex neocortex, the part of the brain that is responsible for traits typically associated with human intelligence, such as problem-solving and self-awareness. Researchers have even found that dolphins have von Economo neurons, which are associated with emotions, social cognition, and the ability to sense what others are thinking. Besides dolphins, people may be underestimating the intelligence of animals in general. Here are just a few links related to animal smarts.

• Recently, divers off the coast of Kona in Hawaii caught video footage of a bottlenose dolphin asking a human for help to get out of a tangle of fishing lines. The dolphin swam up to one diver as he gestured with his hand for it to come closer. The diver removed a fishing hook out of the dolphin's left pectoral fin, and at one point the dolphin had to surface for air, but it went back so that the diver could finish untangling it. [url]
• Dog owners can now figure out just how smart their dogs are with Dognition. It's a web app that lets dog owners record the results of their experiments, which involve playing games with their dogs designed to assess five dimensions of intelligence (empathy, communication, cunning, memory, and reasoning). The data collected from the Dognition project could help scientists better understand the way dogs think and behave. [url]
• Dogs are able to subtly alter the timing, pitch, and amplitude of their barks to produce a variety of sounds that could have different meanings. While humans may have trouble distinguishing between a "food growl" and a "stranger growl," studies have shown that dogs can recognize the meaning of particular barks and growls of other dogs. [url]
• Here are eight other animals that show notable signs of intelligence: Chimpanzees have DNA that is more than 98% identical to human DNA; elephants exhibit self-awareness; cephalopods are curious and have the ability to learn and use tools; crows are crafty; squirrels can be deceptive; dogs can understand people's intentions; cats are extremely adaptable; and pigs can distinguish between familiar scribbles on a screen and ones that they have never seen before. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.

Filed Under: animal intelligence, animals, brains, cat, cephalopod, chimpanzee, crow, dog, dognition, dolphin, elephant, intelligence, pig, smart animals, squirrel