Would You Confuse 'Pierogi Fest' With 'Edwardsville Pierogi Festival'? Neither Would We

from the hot-potato dept

You write about enough trademark disputes and you come across some real whoppers. And, man, have I seen some doozies. Still, I never stop being suprised by how silly these things can get. Today's example of this revolves around the Chamber of Commerce for Whiting, Indiana sending out trademark threat letters to the Edwardsville Hometown Committee in Pennsylvania over the latter's 'Edwardsville Pierogi Festival.

Lawyers for the Whiting Pierogi Fest in Whiting, Indiana, recently sent a letter to the nonprofit Edwardsville Hometown Committee demanding it stop using the trademarked name or pay royalties for its use.

They claim the usage leads to “unfair competition” and “is likely to cause consumer confusion.”

Two separate letters were sent to this effect, actually, both making the claim that consumers would be confused between a suburban Chicago "Pierogi Fest" and the "Edwardsville Pierogi Festival." These claims rest on the Chamber's federally registered trademark for "Pierogi Fest", which is itself a laughably broad and almost perfectly descriptive phrase, causing me to wonder how the USPTO approved the mark to begin with. That aside, it should be obvious that any fears for consumer confusion between two geographically distinct (678 miles!) pierogi festivals would make Chicken Little roll his eyes. And it's worth mentioning that both of these threat letters included offers to license the trademark for money, as well.

Well, the Edwardsville Hometown Committee declined to license the phrase and has instead filed suit for declaratory relief. In that filing, the Committee reveals that it was not the only recipient of the Chamber's threat letters.

25. The Hometown Committee has both existing contractual relationships with the sponsors of the Edwardsvilie Pierogi Festival and potential contractual relationships with additional sponsors for upcoming Edwardsville Pierogi Festivals. 26. By sending correspondence to sponsors of the Edwardsville Pierogi Festival threatening them with liability for trademark infringement, the Chamber has purposefully and intentionally sought to harm the relationship of the Hometown Committee with its existing sponsors and to prevent prospective relationships between the Hometown Committee and future sponsors of the Edwardsville Pierogi Festival.

So the Chamber sent threats to the sponsors of the Committee's Pierogi Festival as well. Not a good look when we're talking about a trademark as broad and descriptive as "Pierogi Fest", particularly when there are lots of other festivals using that same name already. I'm not sure if the Chamber thinks it has a great licensing opportunity with all of the pierogi festivals out there or not, but it's certainly not doing a great job of protecting the trademark it never should have been granted.

I imagine Whiting's Chamber of Commerce actually never expected to find itself in court, figuring Edwardsville would simply bow to its demands and license the mark. Hopefully the court will see fit to take this case to its proper end and invalidate the "Pierogi Fest" trademark entirely.

Filed Under: edwardsville, pierogi, pierogi fest, trademark