Christopher Gordon got his 15 minutes. When his YouTube video, "Crazy Nastyass Honey Badger," went viral, Wal-Mart, Target and Kohl's jumped on the Honey Badger bandwagon and started selling products based on the catch phrase “Honey Badger Don’t Care” on some of its merchandise. Mr. Gordon filed lawsuits against all three companies claiming both trademark and copyright infringement.
Fast food icon Arby’s has announced that it will cease use of “Eat Your Bourbon” to market its new line of sandwiches that feature a bourbon-flavored sauce. This decision is the result of a trademark infringement lawsuit filed by Bourbon Barrel Foods, claiming that Arby’s was infringing its trademark.
As far as we are concerned, “Eat Your Bourbon” is not very clever nor particularly appealing. If there were laws against bad marketing, we’d have filed charges.
A U.S. District Court judge threw out a claim by Parks, the manufacturer of “Ball Park” hot dogs, that Tyson Foods and Hillshire Brands infringed the “Ball Park” trademark by using the slogan “Park’s Finest” on a line of hot dogs. While the judge did dismiss the claim by granting Tyson Food’s and Hillshire Brand’s motion for summary judgement, it was a 1-0 game since the judge denied Tyson’s and Hillshire’s request for sanctions against Parks for filing a frivolous claim.
When the Cordua Restaurant chain filed for a trademark for “Churrascos,” the Trademark Office turned them down on the basis that “Churrascos” is the generic term for Spanish and Portuguese-style grilled meat. The Cordua folks had a beef (sorry, we cannot help ourselves) with the Trademark Office’s decision, so they appealed it the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB).
Back in 2013, Ashley Reed Trading lost a trademark infringement lawsuit filed by Fendi Adele claiming that Ashley Reed was selling counterfeit handbags that were labeled as genuine Fendi Adele. The judge ordered Ashely Reed to pay Fendi Adele $35 million, three times the company’s sales from 2001 through 2006, the period during which it sold the counterfeit handbags. Ouch! But they had it coming.