David: Bo Muller-Moore (one guy making t-shirts above his garage)
Goliath: Chick-fil-A (sold $3.5 BILLION worth of product in 2010)
The Beef: Chick-fil-A claims that a t-shirt maker using the slogan “Eat More Kale” is infringing upon their chicken selling restaurant chain. There are many reasons such shirts, bumperstickers, etc. pose no threat to the Chick-fil-A business.
Read the Burlington Free Press story
My friend Jeff Weinstein set up a petition for Bo here They are only a couple thousand signatures away from the goal of 25,000.
Incidentally, Jeff is also the producer of Two Guys in VT soup. His soup is excellent, with a wonderful dedication to sourcing local ingredients. You can find it at The Greene Grape and The Garden.
Seth, glad to see that EAT MORE KALE is already on your radar… It’s made it all the way to Princeton! Small World and the Whole Earth Center are leading an EAT MORE KALE PRINCETON campaign, complete with his t-shirts. Who thought kale would be such a threat?
Just to be fair, there’s an important distinction between trademark law and copyright law. Copyright can be selectively enforced, but trademark must be fully enforced or the trademark is forfeited. In other words, once Chick-fil-A was made aware of the eat more kelp slogan, they either went after the “David” or risked losing the trademark entirely. So, Chick-fil-A did not need to see kelp as threat, and they aren’t necessarily trying to defeat a small business. By the way, I have no connection with Chick-fil-A other than loving their food. I found this website while trying to find out about the mold on my syrup.