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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

#41

Post by paul_odin »

DavidWoof wrote: post #38
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...

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…

The Eat More Kale guy was born in Memphis, TN.

http://eatmorekale.com/about.html

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

#42

Post by ScottBurson »

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.

"Popular and widespread"? In some parts of the country, perhaps. I wasn't aware of it, and according to the article, Muller-Moore had never heard of Chick-fil-A until the company contacted him. It's entirely possible that Chick-fil-A has little or no presence in Vermont.

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

#43

Post by eurleif »

mpyne wrote: post #39
eurleif wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

But the trademark is on "eat mor chikin", not "eat more". IANAL, but the article gave me the impression that the USPTO has some discretion in determining how much similarity makes a violation.

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

#44

Post by mpyne »

eurleif wrote: post #43
mpyne wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

But the trademark is on "eat mor chikin", not "eat more". IANAL, but the article gave me the impression that the USPTO has some discretion in determining how much similarity makes a violation.

Yes, that's just it, it's practically all subjective. You don't have to copy every word for it to be a trademark infringement either.

Personally I think he was lucky to have gotten Chik-Fil-A off of his back in 2006 because the slogan similarities are stunning, but then again I've actually seen Chik-Fil-A advertising for years before this.

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

#45

Post by radicalbyte »

tripzilch wrote: post #37
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.

Hahaha, nice one. I live in Gelderland, close to a butcher who smokes the proper sausages.

For Americans - the difference is the same as between the processed cheese you get on a burger and real cheese..

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