Eat’n Park sends another cease-and-desist over Smiley Cookie branding; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, December 27, 2024

STEPHANA OCNEANU , Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Eat’n Park sends another cease-and-desist over Smiley Cookie branding

"Eat’n Park is set on protecting its iconic Smiley Cookies brand this holiday season.

Alleging trademark infringement, the Homestead-based restaurant chain has sent a cease and desist letter to McArthur’s Bakery in St. Louis for producing a similar smiling cookie business...

EPR Holdings, Inc., tied to the Eat’n Park Restaurants, registered the “Smiley” word trademark in 2007. The accompanying smiley face design used on its cookies and pancakes was registered two years prior. Eat’n Park has sold (and given away) the cookie since the mid 1980s.

“We are not seeking to profit from an agreement with McArthur’s Bakery or to stop their good work; we simply want to do what’s required by the law to uphold our trademarks,” a spokesperson for Eat’n Park told the Post-Gazette in an email...

Should the bakery continue to ignore communication from Eat’n Park, the situation may be taken to court, as has occurred in the past."

Crayola trademarks the 'slightly earthy' smell of its crayons; Financial Post, August 23, 2024

 Lily Meier and Brian Delk, Bloomberg via Financial Post; Crayola trademarks the 'slightly earthy' smell of its crayons

"In July, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued a trademark to the arts and crafts giant for the smell of its crayons — that waxy scent of a childhood spent trying to colour within the lines."

Justices Will Probe Trademarks’ Nature in ‘Trump Too Small’ Case; Bloomberg Law, October 30, 2023

 Kyle Jahner, Bloomberg Law; Justices Will Probe Trademarks’ Nature in ‘Trump Too Small’ Case

"The fight over ‘Trump Too Small’ is the latest in a series of cases the court has faced in recent years raising First Amendment questions over trademark registrations. Although the justices skipped deciding the broader constitutional questions when they struck down different statutory registration bans in 2017 and 2019, this time the nature of the government’s argument may force the justices to now draw a line in the sand, he said."

‘Trump Too Small’ Fight Splits First Amendment Trademark Views; Bloomberg Law, September 22, 2023

Kyle Jahner, Bloomberg Law; ‘Trump Too Small’ Fight Splits First Amendment Trademark Views

"A dispute over a “Trump Too Small” trademark application hinges on whether a statutory ban offends the First Amendment, as the US Supreme Court recently found two other restrictions did."

The sudden rush of vulgar trademarks; The Boston Globe, June 23, 2018

Sonia K. Katyal, The Boston Globe; The sudden rush of vulgar trademarks

"There are now at least three different kinds of marks which can be registered without challenge. The first category includes marks that comprise, well, hate speech — the name of the pro football team in Washington, as an example. The second falls into Tam’s context — self-referential marks. 

But the third group is different. Like a team playing defense, these trademark owners seek to register marks to keep the rest of the public from doing so.

In perhaps the most surprising result of the court’s ruling, the applicants for several of the most offensive terms did so not to sell merchandise, but to stop others from doing the same."

Appeals court vacates decisions that canceled Redskins trademark registrations; USA Today, January 18, 2018

Erik Brady, USA Today; Appeals court vacates decisions that canceled Redskins trademark registrations

"The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit on Thursday vacated decisions that had canceled the Washington NFL team’s federal trademark registrations, officially ending a legal fight that lasted more than 25 years.

Legally speaking, the team won. Culturally speaking, Native American petitioners believe they did."