A "batik artist" in Alaska made up some hand-lettered T-shirts and baby "onsies" (one piece thing babies wear) with "Got Breastmilk?"
She got a trademark infringement C&D from the California Milk Processor Board for being confusingly similar. The letter demanded the cessation of "all sales, marketing, and ship no later than this week, all T-shirts, onsiesand equipment used to make them, as well as any accounting of any profits, 'to avoid resorting to litigation.'"
The artist claims her "parody" is "protected by the free speech provisions of th First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution." She also said that "'no reasonable person would be confused by the parody,'" and that "before she publicized her "'got breastmilk'" products, she did a quick scan on the Internet and found plenty of others already using just that slogan." She hired a local attorney and is waiting for a respose to an e-mail she sent in reply to the C&D.
It's not a domain TM, but has all the similarities and is worth following. There is much more to the story, of course. This story ran in the Alaska Daily News today. More can be found online and at http://searchalaska.adn.com/sp?keywords=breastmilk&submit=find+%BB&aff=100
She got a trademark infringement C&D from the California Milk Processor Board for being confusingly similar. The letter demanded the cessation of "all sales, marketing, and ship no later than this week, all T-shirts, onsiesand equipment used to make them, as well as any accounting of any profits, 'to avoid resorting to litigation.'"
The artist claims her "parody" is "protected by the free speech provisions of th First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution." She also said that "'no reasonable person would be confused by the parody,'" and that "before she publicized her "'got breastmilk'" products, she did a quick scan on the Internet and found plenty of others already using just that slogan." She hired a local attorney and is waiting for a respose to an e-mail she sent in reply to the C&D.
It's not a domain TM, but has all the similarities and is worth following. There is much more to the story, of course. This story ran in the Alaska Daily News today. More can be found online and at http://searchalaska.adn.com/sp?keywords=breastmilk&submit=find+%BB&aff=100
