This makes me wish I ate pork
Feb 4, 2007 Read/heard/seen
So that I could boycott it. This reads like a joke:
I received a letter this morning from Jennifer Daniel Collins, an attorney at Faegre & Benson that represents The National Pork Board. It stated, for the most part, that my use of the phrase “the other white milk” violates their trademark on the phrase “the other white meat.” As such, they’ve demanded that I remove the shirt, demanded that the image of the shirt be removed from any site I know of, demanded that I destroy any shirts that exist with the logo and demand that I not at any point in the future use the phrase in a commercially profitable way.
from The Lactivist
You’ve got to read the whole thing to really get a feel for the complete idiocy of this threatened lawsuit.
Un-freakin’-believable.
Any Columbus area noise happening about this (The Lactivist is written by a central Ohio mama)?
February 4th, 2007 at 2:42 am
Personally, I would want a judge to determine whether it’s a violation of the trademark or not. It may seem ridiculous to some of us, but there may be a basis in law for the lawsuit. The phrase “the other white milk” is obviously reminiscent (sp?) of “the other white meat”.
I hope the lactivist will find herself a lawyer.
Of course, there isn’t anything wrong with getting angry about it and letting the pork people know you don’t like it, whether they have a basis for their lawsuit or not.
February 4th, 2007 at 2:20 pm
I know that there are lots of moms from the Columbus AP Village forum (the lactivist is a member there) who have been following the links on her blog to complain, and yesterday the Lactivist posted that she has gotten an apology from the CEO of the National Pork Board! Go moms!
February 4th, 2007 at 2:28 pm
Trademarks are big $$$ and they actually HAVE to defend their trademark or it could, in time, be considered “abandoned” and become public domaine. Whether what Lactivist did was Trademark dilution is up to debate, but they could have written her a friendly letter before bringing out the big guns, since her cause is honorable. Bullying someone who means well tends to backfire, as it did here.
February 5th, 2007 at 1:34 am
That’s very funny. Sadly, I’m not surprised. In Marion Nestle’s latest book she talks about how the cane sugar growers tried to sue her for saying soft drinks are high in sugar. They are trying to claim that “sugar” means cane sugar, versus other forms of sugar like high fructose corn syrup (which soft drinks use). So Nestle had to start saying “sugars” to distinguish that she meant various forms of sugar.
February 7th, 2007 at 7:41 am
apparently there is a difference in sugars. my husband avoids high fructose corn syrup. he used to be ok with cane sugar, but now he avoids that as well and will only consume items sweetened with fruit juice. so i guess companies worry that their consumers wont buy their products if they dont like the ingredients.
February 7th, 2007 at 2:18 pm
“The other white milk”?
I . Just. Love. It.
I’ll make my own, just to rub their snouts in it.
When I lived in Ohio, I called a bookstore, part of a national chain known to have had a store manager somewhere in the country who refused to let women breastfeed in the store, (per official policy of the corporate office) and asked if the policy was still in place.
The young woman who answered the phone was sooo confused, she had to get her manager, who, after placing me on hold, came back stammering and hawing that, “No, Miss, we would never dictate such things to women, so please do come in.”
Yeah. Gotcha.
February 8th, 2007 at 2:48 pm
Update: everything has been settled very well.
http://thelactivist.blogspot.com/2007/02/well-done-pork.html