{"id":118,"date":"2010-12-27T07:20:27","date_gmt":"2010-12-27T15:20:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ipmetrics.net\/blog\/?p=118"},"modified":"2016-03-21T14:58:49","modified_gmt":"2016-03-21T22:58:49","slug":"peace-love-and-trademark-infringement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ipmetrics.net\/blog\/litigation\/case-law\/peace-love-and-trademark-infringement\/","title":{"rendered":"Peace, Love, and Trademark Infringement"},"content":{"rendered":"

By: Fernando Torres, MSc<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Last week, \u00a0The Popcorn Factory LLC, a 1-800-FLOWERS.COM company, \u00a0filed a federal lawsuit for trademark infringement and cybersquatting against “Love Peace Popcorn”\u00a0a Frisco, Texas family store. \u00a0The store, run by the Paparella family, has a federal registration for the mark (#77,558,903) based on a first use in commerce since August 2008, and uses illustrations of a heart, a peace sign, and a piece of popcorn:<\/p>\n

\"rotate-logo\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Popcorn Factory has been marketing some of their products and related merchandise as PEACE, LOVE & POPCORN, but we could not find a federal registration at all and it is not claimed as a trademark on their website (no TM).<\/p>\n

\"PLP-150x150\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

The complaint claims The Popcorn Factory began marketing products under the slogan \u201cPeace Love Popcorn\u201d and, curiously enough, illustrated by similar drawings of a peace sign, a heart and a piece of popcorn since the Spring of 2008.<\/p>\n

On the face of it, this case will bring into question the rights of \u00a0a federal registration (defendant) versus the common law use (plaintiff). \u00a0The claim for\u00a0cyber-squatting\u00a0seems weak\u00a0because\u00a0the plaintiff does not have a registration. \u00a0If neither party was aware of the other’s usage, as claimed, then actual damages may be hard to prove and the statutory route under cyber-squatting may be the only monetary award available. \u00a0Of course, a damages assessment is necessary these days to support an injunction.<\/p>\n

This is an intriguing\u00a0case we shall follow with interest. \u00a0Thanks go to the timeliness of the Chicago Breaking Business<\/a> site for bringing this case to our attention.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, The Popcorn Factory LLC, a 1-800-FLOWERS.COM company using the slogan Peace, Love & Popcorn”, filed a federal lawsuit for trademark infringement and cybersquatting against “Love Peace Popcorn\u00ae” a Frisco, Texas family store. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,6,10,15,21],"tags":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2xROl-1U","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ipmetrics.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ipmetrics.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ipmetrics.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ipmetrics.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ipmetrics.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.ipmetrics.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":962,"href":"http:\/\/www.ipmetrics.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118\/revisions\/962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ipmetrics.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ipmetrics.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ipmetrics.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}