Slashdot Mirror
ThinkGeek's Best Ever Cease-and-Desist Letter
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.
SPAM is a contraction of SPiced hAM; what is the acronym for Canned Unicorn Meat? Have they considered changing the slogan to "Enjoy some tasty CUM today!"?
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Would you have known about the $10 off any $40 order if it wasn't on the front page? ;)
Article reading FTW!
i dunno, baconless bacon double cheeseburger doesnt look shorter to me.
turn up the jukebox and tell me a lie
/////.not the lawyers who are just dealing with the laws as they are.
Pardon me, but this is clearly parody. The lawyers ALREADY HAVE LAWS TO TELL THEM TO RESPECT PARODY. They chose to ignore them.
Not only is this a parody, its not even a real product, and the phrase is not the same phrase as "the other white meat."
Playing up the "We're just following the law, ma'am and are powerless to think for ourselves" card is a unconvincing excuse. that empowers organizations like SCO.
Lastly, pork is far from the 'other white meat'. Compared to chicken or turkey its incredibly unhealthy.
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.
my Nick is relevant to a Slashdot story.
ThinkGeek FTW!
--- Generation X: The first generation to have SIG lines inferior to their parents... ---
How many people has the California Milk Processor Board sued for the literally hundreds of infringements of their "Got ____?" Trademark?
Dunno. Got Citation?
Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.
Are you saying there are slow unicorn enthusiasts?
Only impaled ones.