Intellectual Property Law Firms | Yes, You Can Register a Goat!

Trademark Registration for Rooftop goats?

Lars Johnson’s Al Johnson's Swedish Restaurant boasts enticing Swedish-meatball sandwiches and pickled herring, but what really attracts customers to Lars’s Restaurant are the goats that will be grazing above patrons on the grass covered roof.

An ABAJournal article states that this goat-roofed restaurant located in Sister Bay, Wisconsin, has been using rooftop goats to attract business 1973 when a goat was given to Lars as a gag gift.

Lars trademarked the rooftop goats marketing ploy in 1996 and since then has doggedly (or should we say goatishly) pursued action against instances of alleged infringement of intellectual property (IP). Indeed, the Wall Street Journal reported that;

Trademark Infringement Lawsuit over the IHOP acronym, IHOP Sues IHOPrayer

Trademark Registration key for IHOP Enforecement Lawsuit

The international House of Pancakes filed a trademark infringement suit in California earlier this September against the International House of Prayer with IHOPancakes alleging the IHOPrayer deliberately choose that name to rope-in new followers by capitalizing off of the famous IHOP trademark.

Speaking on behalf of IHOPancakes, Patrick Lenow provided the public with the Pancake Restaurant’s motive for filing the lawsuit;

“We are compelled to protect the 350 small-business owners who own IHOP franchises and the IHOP good name that’s been around for 52 years”

Trademark Registration Proves Difficult for MTV’s Jersey Shore Cast

In a series of trademark registration decisions issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the Office has almost roundly denied trademark registration applications submitted by MTV’s Jersey Shore cast members seeking to register marks in their nicknames.

For example, Paul Delvecchio, Jr.’s (recognized on the Jersey Shore as ‘Pauly D’) efforts to get his DJ business going have been stymied in the USPTO by another trademark that has been in effect since 1973. The trademark preventing Pauly D from registering the trademark ‘DJ Pauly’ is held by another DJ going by the nickname ‘DJ Paulie’.

Mike ‘The Situation’ Sorrentino has also run into trademark registration troubles. Sorrentino’s attempt to register the trademark ‘The Situation’ in conjunction with T-shirt and underwear sales was recently suspended by the USPTO.