“Three years ago, Purina sent a cease-and-desist letter to Chow, Baby!, a Baltimore area pet supply shop and Web site owned by Robin McDonald, asserting that its use of the ‘Chow, Baby!’ name was likely to cause confusion with Purina’s CHOW trademarks and would dilute the distinctive quality of those marks. … According to the dictionary, ‘chow’ is defined as food, a meaning that dates back to 1860.” (Carolyn Elefant, Legal Blog Watch, May 2). More from Ron Coleman:
But companies such as Purina are not interested in discussing the matter. Brand management isn’t a seminar. They are interesting in executing and maintaining a policy of complete domination of not only their brand equity space, but a comfortable semiotic buffer all around that space to the full extent that they can get away with it. Judges simply do not award fees or otherwise penalize brand owners for overreaching under the Lanham Act, though the Act empowers them to do so (the exceptions are notable and hence reportable). For this reason it is worth it to Purina and companies like it — it is a rational economic and corporate choice — to litigate these cases at the small risk of actually getting to a final adverse judgment regarding a trademark they have no right to anyway, as weighed against the much higher possibility that the other side will surrender $10,000, $25,000 or even $100,000 worth of fees into the process — dollars that are orders of magnitude more significant to the defendant (or declaratory judgment plaintiff) than for a corporation that probably has counsel on a retainer anyway.
6 Comments
I am no lawyer but use of the word Chow specifically in reference to pet products might not be too broad. It certainly seems like the owner was trying to create the mental link in customers minds.
Though placing a picture of a Chow Chow next to the text might have diminished this.
Chow Chow? Are you referring to the Amish salad?
The TV show “Futurama” used to refer to a fictional (future) product for unmarried male humans called “Bachelor Chow.” Somehow that must have slipped past Purina’s notice.
I could be wrong but I thought the dog breed usually called a Chow was officially the Chow Chow.
And the salad image that gives me is truly revolting.
What about the pickle known as ‘chow chow’? I’m sure it’s use pre-dates Purina’s efforts. Further, it’s a food product, so the possibility of product confusion is certainly higher than if it were, say, a bicycle tire.
Is there something about multi-lingual puns that particularly agitates litigators?
Chow, in Chow, Baby is just a play on the Italian word Ciao.