Trademark Cluelessness: The Other White Meat
from the morons-in-a-hurry dept
Headbhang was the first of a few of you to send in the news of favorite supplier of all things geeky, Thinkgeek, receiving an incredibly long and detailed cease and desist letter from the National Pork Board, complaining about its use of the phrase "the other white meat" on an April Fool's joke offering for canned unicorn meat. The NPB is somewhat notorious for defending the "the other white meat" trademark, but even its high priced lawyers must know that there's no likelihood of confusion here, and the parody defense would likely win out. Also, since for it to be infringement there needs to be actual "use in commerce" and this is a product that can not and will not ever be sold... does it even qualify? Not only that, but the NPB is looking for a new slogan for pork, so there won't be much need to eliminate the confusion between pork and unicorn products. Even more importantly, did no one think that maybe, just maybe, sending a cease-and-desist over an April Fool's joke might look bad?Filed Under: april fool's, other white meat, trademark
Companies: national pork board, thinkgeek
