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ThinkGeek's Best Ever Cease-and-Desist Letter

Posted by kdawson on from the good-source-of-sparkle dept.

ThinkGeek, sister company to Slashdot, received a meticulously researched (except on one point) 12-page cease-and-desist letter from the National Pork Board. What had the meat lobbyists up in arms was an April Fools product from the TG catalog: Radiant Farms Canned Unicorn Meat, whose copy included the line "the new white meat." The NPB figured this was confusingly similar to their trademarked "the other white meat" (an advertising slogan the pork industry is considering retiring anyway). Geeknet, parent company of Thinkgeek and Slashdot, issued a press release apologizing for any confusion; you can read it on ThinkGeek's site (PDF), because the newswires refused to distribute it for some reason. Oh, and ThinkGeek has no intention of taking down the protected parody.

6 of 264 comments (clear)

  1. Before having a knee-jerk anti-lawyer moment... by Angst+Badger · · Score: 4, Informative

    ...consider that organizations can lose their trademarks if they don't actively defend them against even vague and doubtful potential infringements. If they let this case slip without issuing a token C&D, it could be cited later by an actual competitor as grounds for permitting their own infringement.

    That's not to say that the law isn't stupid, but the proper target for complaints about the stupidity of the law is your local congresscritter, not the lawyers who are just dealing with the laws as they are. These lawyers are just writing letters, not trolling for DUI cases on the sides of city buses.

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    1. Re:Before having a knee-jerk anti-lawyer moment... by RuralJuror · · Score: 5, Informative
      That would be true if this were a real product.

      I am an IP lawyer (IAAIPL). From the letter of demand, it appears that the NPB hasn't actually twigged that this is an imaginary product. Therefore even if ThinkGeek has used their trademark, they haven't used it as a trademark - i.e. to indicate the origin of a product - because there is no actual product. (I tried ordering it, it doesn't let you.)

      Funnily enough, it might be different if they were shipping something, even if it was just a novelty can of dog food.

    2. Re:Before having a knee-jerk anti-lawyer moment... by initialE · · Score: 4, Informative

      If the intention is to protect their trademark, issuing an exemption (a proceed and permitted letter) is also an acceptable option, and it's a hell of a lot less offensive. These guys are just being jerks.

      --
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  2. Re:Why did this make the front page? by sheetsda · · Score: 5, Informative

    Would you have known about the $10 off any $40 order if it wasn't on the front page? ;)

    Article reading FTW!

  3. Re:Isn't Satire Protected? by RuralJuror · · Score: 4, Informative
    You're thinking of copyright. They're not arguing copyright infringement, they're arguing trademark infringement.

    I'm an IP lawyer (IAAIPL) and putting aside the fact that this is completely ridiculous, the most obvious legal problem the NPB is going to face is that I don't think ThinkGeek was using the slogan as a trademark (which is a prerequisite for trademark infringement), given that they weren't selling an actual product. Although to be fair, I'm not sure the sale of an imaginary product under trademark law has been considered by a court before...

  4. Re:Oh, c'mon! by quickOnTheUptake · · Score: 4, Informative

    He was apparently distinguishing those who admire unicorns from a distance from those who play games with them: Being swift-footed goes hand in hand with being able to jump high, which is absolutely necessary when playing unicorns' favorite game: leapfrog.

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