I’m Ollie. Plaintiff, Unilever, owns an extensive portfolio of over 25 trademarks ending in -SICLE such as POPSICLE, FUDGSICLE and CREAMSICLE, primarily for quiescently frozen treats but for non-food goods as well. I note in passing that the inventor, Epperson, had originally called his first creation the EPSICLE, which he re-named the POPSICLE. Defendants promote BONESICLES, a ‘freezer pop dog treat.’ The website claims that ‘taste tests show 100% of dogs loved the flavor.’ A bold claim indeed. Unilever moves under infringement and dilution theories.
Unilever asserts a family of marks, that is to say, the -SICLE suffix has achieved secondary meaning, a reasonable assertion considering the popularity of POPSICLES, FUDGSICLES and CREAMSICLES among humans.
But query: whither Chewy Vuitton?
Complaint Unilever Koolpet(function() { var scribd = document.createElement(“script”); scribd.type = “text/javascript”; scribd.async = true; scribd.src = “http://www.scribd.com/javascripts/embed_code/inject.js”; var s = document.getElementsByTagName(“script”)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(scribd, s); })();