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‘Eat More Kale’ Company Is Losing Against Chick-Fil-A in Trademark Battle

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Re: ‘Eat More Kale’ Company Is Losing Against Chick-Fil-A in Trademark Battle

#31

Post by graeme »

rayiner wrote: post #21
graeme wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is it clearly an attempt to play off that slogan? I hadn't heard of the slogan, and 'Eat More Kale' just sounded like it was playing off the pro-Kale zeitgeist of our times. Both vegetarian and paleo diet eaters love Kale (to use two opposite diets as examples), and it's all the rage in trendy urban areas.

If you've heard of "Eat Mor Chickin" you clearly perceive "Eat More Kale" as a vegetarian retort to that. If you haven't heard that slogan... well I don't know what to tell you, what rock have you been living under? EDIT: I think this may be explained by my being from the south and your being from Canada...

Yeah, Canada definitely has something to do with it, but also age. I'm 27, and know a LOT of 20-25 year olds who eat lots of Kale. They're definitely not all vegetarian, and many are too young to remember that slogan.

But what I really meant is that 'Eat More X' is so generic and easy to come up with that it's not surprising if it occurs to someone independently. For example, 'Eat More Bacon' would make for a good paleo diet T-Shirt.

From what I've read, the chik-fil-a slogan was quite clever and depended on the spelling and context. Simply saying 'Eat More...' on the other hand, is something we all say quite frequently. "Eat more vegetables!"

Re: ‘Eat More Kale’ Company Is Losing Against Chick-Fil-A in Trademark Battle

#33

Post by pessimizer »

rayiner wrote: post #16
ars wrote: post #2

Is it really possible to trademark a sentence where the plain meaning of the sentence is something that people would ordinarily say?

Yes, but such trademarks are necessarily harder to defend because you have to show that consumers associate the term with a specific brand, not just the meaning of the words. This case is pretty easy, though, because nobody would use "Eat More Kale" as a marketing slogan unless it was an intentional play on Chick-fil-A's popular and widespread "Eat Mor Chikin" campaign.

>because nobody would use "Eat More Kale" as a marketing slogan unless it was an intentional play on Chick-fil-A's popular and widespread "Eat Mor Chikin" campaign.

This is not true.

Re: ‘Eat More Kale’ Company Is Losing Against Chick-Fil-A in Trademark Battle

#34

Post by jarrett »

pessimizer wrote: post #32

The only reason that he filed for a trademark was to keep other people from printing "Eat More Kale" on t-shirts. He's the IP bully at this point. Chick-Fil-A gave up on trying to bully him in 2006.

According to the article (though I haven't verified this), there are sellers on eBay using "the exact same logo." That does sound like it might be unethical. Assuming the copying is as audacious as the article suggests, I wouldn't characterize the original creator as a bully.

Regardless of the status of the trademark application, I'd also be curious as to whether a copyright claim could have legs. If a t-shirt design is copied verbatim, you might not need trademark protection; copyright could be sufficient.

Re: ‘Eat More Kale’ Company Is Losing Against Chick-Fil-A in Trademark Battle

#35

Post by lancefisher »

eurleif wrote: post #24

Here's an "eat more corn, oats, ..." poster from WWI: http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/sow-seeds/ I wonder if that's good for anything.

IANAL, but trademark are different than patents. If this were a patent issue that poster could be prior art. However, Chick-fil-A does have a trademark on "Eat mor chickin", and that's what matters.

In fact if there had been a trademark on "eat more corn, oats, and rye" which I highly doubt there was, it has likely fallen out of use. You can trademark old marks that have not been in use for a while. I met a local trademark attorney that did just this with an old beer brand, that he is now selling a craft beer under.

Re: ‘Eat More Kale’ Company Is Losing Against Chick-Fil-A in Trademark Battle

#36

Post by eurleif »

lancefisher wrote: post #35
eurleif wrote: post #24

Here's an "eat more corn, oats, ..." poster from WWI: http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/sow-seeds/ I wonder if that's good for anything.

IANAL, but trademark are different than patents. If this were a patent issue that poster could be prior art. However, Chick-fil-A does have a trademark on "Eat mor chickin", and that's what matters. In fact if there had been a trademark on "eat more corn, oats, and rye" which I highly doubt there was, it has likely fallen out of use. You can trademark old marks that have not been in use for a while. I met a local tra…

But perhaps the prior use could help to demonstrate that "eat more ..." is just a generic statement, and so the "eat mor chikin" trademark shouldn't be applied so broadly?

Re: ‘Eat More Kale’ Company Is Losing Against Chick-Fil-A in Trademark Battle

#37

Post by tripzilch »

radicalbyte wrote: post #27

Since living in Holland I've started eating a lot more Kale. The boil it and mix it with mashed potatoes, served with smoked sausage and bacon bits. With good quality hand made smoked sausage it's one of my favourite meals. For anyone interested: http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=2023...

Totally recommended. My favourite potato-hash style dish. I usually skip the sausage though, I don't like the cheap processed ones (though they are most "traditional"), which is what you usually get (except when I'm the cook), so I just add more bacon :)

And next you're having boerenkool with some IT types, tell them how UNOX is the worst operating system.

Re: ‘Eat More Kale’ Company Is Losing Against Chick-Fil-A in Trademark Battle

#38

Post by DavidWoof »

rayiner wrote: post #21
graeme wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is it clearly an attempt to play off that slogan? I hadn't heard of the slogan, and 'Eat More Kale' just sounded like it was playing off the pro-Kale zeitgeist of our times. Both vegetarian and paleo diet eaters love Kale (to use two opposite diets as examples), and it's all the rage in trendy urban areas.

If you've heard of "Eat Mor Chickin" you clearly perceive "Eat More Kale" as a vegetarian retort to that. If you haven't heard that slogan... well I don't know what to tell you, what rock have you been living under? EDIT: I think this may be explained by my being from the south and your being from Canada...

Chick-fil-a is much, much more prominent in the South than they are in the rest of the US, let alone the world, and the Eat Mor Chickin campaign seems to be much more prevalent down there as well. I honestly don't think I've seen the phrase outside the South; I'm sure it exists, but chick-fil-a doesn't advertise nearly as much in NYC and Chicago as they do in the parts of the South I've lived in.

It's not surprising to me in the slightest that somebody from Vermont, like the Eat More Kale guy, had simply never heard the slogan. Most people in New England have never heard of Waffle House either.

Re: ‘Eat More Kale’ Company Is Losing Against Chick-Fil-A in Trademark Battle

#39

Post by mpyne »

eurleif wrote: post #36
lancefisher wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IANAL, but trademark are different than patents. If this were a patent issue that poster could be prior art. However, Chick-fil-A does have a trademark on "Eat mor chickin", and that's what matters. In fact if there had been a trademark on "eat more corn, oats, and rye" which I highly doubt there was, it has likely fallen out of use. You can trademark old marks that have not been in use for a while. I met a local tra…

But perhaps the prior use could help to demonstrate that "eat more ..." is just a generic statement, and so the "eat mor chikin" trademark shouldn't be applied so broadly?

You can trademark generic statements as well, as long as it remains notable within the business field.

Re: ‘Eat More Kale’ Company Is Losing Against Chick-Fil-A in Trademark Battle

#40

Post by tracker1 »

graeme wrote: post #31
rayiner wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you've heard of "Eat Mor Chickin" you clearly perceive "Eat More Kale" as a vegetarian retort to that. If you haven't heard that slogan... well I don't know what to tell you, what rock have you been living under? EDIT: I think this may be explained by my being from the south and your being from Canada...

Yeah, Canada definitely has something to do with it, but also age. I'm 27, and know a LOT of 20-25 year olds who eat lots of Kale. They're definitely not all vegetarian, and many are too young to remember that slogan. But what I really meant is that 'Eat More X' is so generic and easy to come up with that it's not surprising if it occurs to someone independently. For example, 'Eat More Bacon' would make for a good pa…

Apparently been done.. http://www.baconfreak.com/eat-more-bacon-piggy-t-shirt.html
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