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from the brrrrrrr dept
Late very last 12 months we reviewed a plainly silly trademark lawsuit introduced by Dairy Queen, which helps make tasty frozen treats, and W.B. Mason which is a unusual mix of furnishings and grocery retailer. At challenge was the latter’s endeavor to trademark some bottled drinking water it sells under the brand “Blizzard Water”. Notably, W.B. Mason had marketed water below that brand name since 2010 without having concern and it was only when Dairy Queen caught wind of the trademark software that it determined to sue more than the opportunity for confusion with its blizzard ice product items.
If you didn’t study that authentic post, you are in all probability now asking yourself why this is a matter at all, specified that water and ice product are incredibly a lot not the identical products and solutions and that the two firms operate in unique marketplaces. Very well, in accordance to Dairy Queen’s match, it sells blizzards as famous, and it also sells Dasani bottled drinking water, for that reason there would be shopper confusion.
Thankfully, in a substantial conclusion, the court docket noticed how silly that argument was and found in favor of W.B. Mason.
In a 217-website page decision designed public on Friday, U.S. District Choose Susan Richard Nelson located a deficiency of proof that buyers were bewildered by the Blizzards or that W.B. Mason, an workplace merchandise distributor, supposed to confuse everyone.
Whilst acknowledging that W.B. Mason, which has two trademarks for Blizzard copy paper, was not a competitor, Dairy Queen claimed shoppers may be perplexed since its U.S. dining establishments promote bottled h2o. But the decide stated the products and solutions experienced “very diverse audience attraction,” and co-existed for 11 several years regardless of proof that Dairy Queen’s Blizzard experienced achieved “iconic” status, with U.S. profits achieving $1.1 billion in 2020.
Notably, as portion of the information the court uncovered and laid out in its final decision, W.B. Mason doesn’t even sell its drinking water immediate to individuals. Alternatively, it sells water to be employed in office crack rooms, as the majority of its business is in workplace furnishings. On top rated of that, the court docket points out that Dairy Queen presented no evidence of any actual buyer confusion that transpired about almost a 10 years.
“Dairy Queen released no evidence of an true association between the two products and solutions,” Nelson wrote. “If association were to come about, in all probability, it would have occurred by now.”
Dairy Queen has created some noises about desirable the ruling, but I question that will transpire. This total matter has been a trademark go well with nothingburger from the begin.
Filed Underneath: blizzard, trademark
Firms: dairy queen, w.b. mason
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