I really doubt that the SCOTUS will hear this one.

> The toy is part of a line of VIP Products called Silly Squeakers that mimic liquor, beer, wine and soda bottles. They include Mountain Drool, which parodies Mountain Dew, and Heini Sniff’n, which parodies Heineken. A court in 2008 barred the company from selling its Budweiser parody, ButtWiper.

Props to the folks at VIP Products for their refined sense of humour.

It's really stupid that lawsuits like this are allowed in this country.

The part that confuses me about lawsuits like this is isn’t that dog toy essentially free advertising for Jack Daniel’s? Why sue them?

Jack, been drinking too much of your own stuff? Or maybe just taking yourself and your brew too seriously? This is a ridiculous lawsuit. Shame on your lawyers for even bringing this waste of time suit.

people who waste time and money with silly lawsuits should be fined or punished

Because they aren't making money off of them

Come on Jack... you can't act like you don't know shit.

>Blatt wrote that a lower court decision provides “near-blanket protection” to humorous trademark infringement. And she said it has “broad and dangerous consequences,” pointing to children who were hospitalized after eating marijuana-infused products that mimicked candy packaging.

So the lawyer thinks that a dog toy will suddenly cause kids to eat things that are dangerous when the parody toy says:

>the parody proclaims: “The Old No. 2 on Your Tennessee Carpet.” Instead of the original’s note that it is 40% alcohol by volume, the parody says it’s “43% Poo by Vol.” and “100% Smelly.”

The only thing smelly about this whole thing is Jack's lawyers.

But free advertisement does indeed increase revenue.

Jack Daniel’s isn’t getting advertising from the dog toy. No one is familiar with Bad Spaniels but not Jack Daniel’s. The company is profiting off of Jack Daniel’s brand and the company is upset it might dilute the quality of their brand

Costco has a line of these toys but it's mimicking their Kirkland Sig line of booze and other products with similar puns. Even a dog toy membership card. Wonder if other lawsuits are incoming.

Some co's will let things slide. But "butt wiper"? Yeah, don't poke the bear.

> No one is familiar with Bad Spaniels but not Jack Daniel’s.

Advertising isn't just to expose new people to things, it's also to bring those things to the forefront in peoples' minds. If they only cared about people unfamiliar with products why would Coca Cola ever advertise again?

The key part of soft advertising is control over brand image. Here they have none whatsoever. Jack Daniel’s wants to control, their brand association as much as possible. They might not want their brand associated (however unconsciously) with a to-be torn up piece of plastic.

You're making too much sense.

They are.

The difficult question is "What is the line between frivolous and raising a valid objection, even if unlikely to win?" In much of the world, you don't want to bring a lawsuit because of "loser pays" rules, meaning that if you lose, you have to pay for the winner's attorneys.

The bar to being found frivolous is fairly high. A much lower bar is set by the defense attorneys, who simply file a motion for dismissal. "We understand how losing his wife in this tragic accident is a severe blow to Mr. Plaintiff, but we believe that it cannot possibly be our fault because we were merely the auditors for the company he claims is at fault."

The easiest way to get your claim dismissed, and your lawyer disbarred, and have to pay for the other side's legal costs, is to have your lawyer get caught lying to the court.

Budweiser probably holds the copyright to ButtWiper.

You can at least agree that some of them are obviously frivilous right? I worked at a court deposition office years ago and we had a lady paying out the ass trying to sue the US gov because "the poor relations with North Korea was causing her stress".

Isn't this a pretty clear cut case of parody? Seems to me like it would be allowed under fair use policy

Unfortunately for them parody is considered fair use under copyright law and they're unlikely to win against what's very clearly a parody product.

They certainly hold the recipe.

Won't stop 'em from trying.

If it can be shown that they're not actively defending their copyright then they can lose it.

That depends on how much JD arrives on SCOTUS justices' front porches. From anonymous donors, of course. I recall certain jurisdictions where a favorable property assessment could be bought with a case of spirits. Just an anonymous donation, of course.

Other people are saying they aren’t making money off of this, but free advertising In a humerus way means they are.

No the real reason is that big companies like Jack Daniel’s have lawyers on their payroll who need to justify their existence. Plus suing the other company is also providing additional advertising for Jack Daniel’s cause it gets their name in the headlines.

Chefs kiss. Solid NTO headline.

How about under trademark law?

Their labels are a testament to bigotry. They have bigger things to worry about.

It's clearly a parody. Jack Daniel's either had stupid lawyers, or they're just not doing a good job telling their masters they have no case.

How many times is this dumb misconception going to get spread around. This only applies to trademark, not copyright.

Scotuss will drop Moore Vs Harper and focus on the real issues like this case /s

OMG this is petty as hell.

• It's parody.
• The products are not confusingly-similar; they are not even the same product. One is alcohol, the other is a dog toy.

There is no trademark case here. They're out of their gourds. That doesn't mean this braindead court won't hear it, though.

> “To be sure, everyone likes a good joke. But VIP’s profit-motivated ‘joke’ confuses consumers by taking advantage of Jack Daniel’s hard-earned goodwill,” she wrote for the Louisville, Kentucky-based Brown-Forman Corp., Jack Daniel’s parent company.

No it doesn't. Shut up.

Because it’s a dilution of their trademark. In trademark law, the law is very clear and states that the owner of a trademark has the legal duty to defend their trademark vigorously. To fail to do so will be interpreted as giving permission. And doing so weakens the ownership rights of the owner. Permissive use without license causes detriment to the trademark owner in subsequent infringement cases. So unless you fight hard on the first case, you may be much more vulnerable to other parties taking your trademark and using it for their own commercial purposes with a stronger defense against the original owner.

You don’t want to sacrifice the ownership interests of your trademark for the sake of some short lived added public exposure of that trademark done by a 3rd party without license to do so. It means the trademark owner loses control over the way the mark is used and how it’s used. It also erodes the overall defensibility of the trademark in subsequent infringements by unlicensed parties establishing a precedent for permissive use by failure to defend your trademark.

>Can you parody a trademark?

>To constitute trademark parody, there must be two juxtaposing messages: the use must copy enough of the mark for people to recognize the targeted brand, but differentiate it sufficiently using some articulable elements of satire, ridicule, joking or amusement so that people can tell it is not connected to the original

Also allowed, and this certainly qualifies.

Streisand effect incoming.

If you don't continuously fight for your trademark, you could lose it. While it may be funny, this toy company is pushing the limit of using another company's work for its own profit. We all hate lawyers, but it in this case not only is it necessary but it is also clear that VIP's own lawyers are dumber than dirt for not telling the company that it is a bad idea to introduce a product that clearly copies everyone about Jack Daniel's.

No those are not the reasons why a trademark owner defends their trademark. You don’t pay lawyers for busy work. There’s substantive legal reasons to defend a trademark- mainly because it’s their legal duty to do so according to US trademark law. I’ve enumerated the reasons in another comment.

If I recall, Kavanaugh likes alcohol

Man, is the Supreme Court going to need another amicus brief from The Onion explaining parody?

It beer, "I like beer"

Can’t remember if hard liquor was included in his list but he is for sure on record about his beer stance.

These days, Jack Daniel's brand name is attached to all sorts of retail products. Barbecue sauce, pecans, cola, honey, seasoning, a clothing line, pool tables. They might want to start selling some pet products. Big money in that. They should defend their brand.

Right? No one is buying this dog toy and then getting upset that they can’t drink it. Or if they are, they’ve had enough to drink.

Just out of curiosity, what did she want us to do about it?

i would think they could argue that there is no infraction here because the products are non competing...

But let's be real, Budweiser is aimed at dogs.

I'd like to see the justification on the budweiser case. Isn't parody still legal?

I'm pretty sure they're saying we general consumers are likely to confuse their liquor product with a dog toy.

I'm not saying they're right, and I'm not saying they're wrong... But if they're afraid I'm going to confuse the two, I don't really want to be drinking their product.

Trademark protection is one of those things that requires companies to constantly challenge others over ownership of their Trademark. If a single case of trademark infringement goes unchallenged then the company can lose their right to the trademark entirely and irrevocably. This is what happend to Mcdonalds and BigMacs in the EU, though in their case they challenged it but couldn't be assed to do their due dilligence in presenting their case.

The argument is “We have a product consumers like. This product is playing off our product popularity to make sales and profit without being licensed.” Which is a valid claim.

Could I make a sell Tesla plushies or toys and call them “Telsa”?

Hey Jack Daniels! Y’all can sue for “stealing” AFTER you give up some money and stock to the descendants of Nearis Green.

I dont know I didn't really read it, she just wanted money and proclaimed the stress that her family was living there was causing health issues and she tried to cash in on past "damages" and future "damages". I was in charge of scanning all the printed documents to make digital and physical copies and I rarely read the text. There was one where some smaller company was suing blizzard for allegedly copying their netcode for world of warcraft. Sometimes it was horrific car accidents with pictures from the scene.

That’s a pretty idiotic way to try to get a windfall.

I'm not debating what the law is, and I'm not interested in debating what the law is.

I understand that the law mandates the idea of defending ownership of trademarks.

That doesn't change the fact that this is a dumb lawsuit.

Sometimes dumb lawsuits refer to dumb laws underlying them.

These are dog toys, not food products. They don't compete with the food products, and they come with explicit notices on them indicating that they're not affiliated with or produced by the makers of the products they bear some resemblance to.

The fact that there's any question about the legality of these products is a travesty.

I’m not sure what the show Scrubs has to do with this case, but if JD shows up without Turk, it’s a no from me dog

Is that the same guy that pours beer into his ass with his buddies?

Check out the tale of a man name Revlon and his journey in business with his name

Fair use refers to copyright, not trademark. They are distinct things.

No doubt. I can sue Greg Abbott because he signed a bill that causes me emotional distress.

The state of Texas employs tons of lawyers. (Literally. A ton of lawyers is somewhere between 20 and 40 people.) They go to the office and work. It costs Texas literally nothing to file a motion for dismissal and the fact that I, with no formal legal training, can think of six reasons to dismiss this case without even stretching my mental muscles, means that the lawyers can probably think of 60. Their motion will be granted, and the case will (I hope: I've heard bad things about Texas judges, which I'm sure are entirely fabricated) be dismissed "with prejudice". (That means I can't bring the same lawsuit again.)

But one of my favorite examples of a "frivolous lawsuit" is the Stella Liebeck (McDonald's coffee) case. She asked originally for her medical bills to be covered. (Because they had done it for previous burn victims from spilled coffee, they had already established that they knew the coffee was dangerous and they were liable for injuries.) They refused, so she sued. Her lawyer convinced the jury that the appropriate award was "3 days' coffee sales". (Apparently logic is not required in courtrooms.) $105 million. Whatever the final settlement was (it's sealed), we do know that it did not involve the lawyer working for free, and it was less than $105 million.

Was that lawsuit frivolous? (For any foreign readers, hospital treatment in the US is far from free. There is essentially no chance of a company being put out of business, or an executive jailed, for safety violations. The only downside to bad behavior is lawsuits. It's essentially private enforcement of the laws.)

A lot of people talking shit about JD's case here but I think it's a completely valid dispute.

The draw of the product is that it's shaped like a JD bottle. That's why owners are buying it. Now there's some amount of dispute on whether or not this is parody, but is that the intent of the product? It could be argued both ways. I find it likely that the text being modified on the product is not its main draw, i.e. the parody component is not why people are buying it, it's merely an afterthought, but I don't think there's a hard line in parody to determine that legally. This doesn't serve as criticism of the brand, but that isn't a necessity of parody... it's a lot more complicated legally, to me, than just "lol it said poop, it's parody."

>Could I make a sell Tesla plushies or toys and call them “Telsa”?

No, but that's not the claim here. The product isn't called "Jack Daniel's" nor does it have any of the same language on the "bottle."

The toy is "Bad Spaniels"

Furthermore:

>The toy that has Jack Daniel’s so doggone mad mimics the square shape of its whisky bottle as well as its black-and-white label and amber-colored liquor while adding what it calls “poop humor.” While the original bottle has the words “Old No. 7 brand” and “Tennessee Sour Mash Whiskey,” the parody proclaims: “The Old No. 2 on Your Tennessee Carpet.” Instead of the original’s note that it is 40% alcohol by volume, the parody says it’s “43% Poo by Vol.” and “100% Smelly.”

So you comparison is totally wrong.

>Takes advantage of Jack Daniel's hard-earned goodwill

Which in human speak means, "They're only making fun of us because we're popular!"

No shit, sherlock. Otherwise it wouldn't be effective parody.

My dogs love these and yes, we have pictures of them looking like they’re drunk holding a liquor bottle. If anything Jack Daniel’s should be happy my dogs are promoting their product on Facebook.

The piggybacking off JD’s goodwill is obvious though. It’s definitely an interesting case but JD’s attorney is not producing good arguments with the weed gummy BS.

I never saw SCRUBS. My JD reference was for Jack Daniels. Sorry to have confused you.

Or shouldn't be allowed to drink, vote or own a gun

Off-camera usually, right?

"Let's sue him too!"

I might be the only one, but I legitimately buy the silly squeakers toys because they stand up to a lot of abuse. My dog loves them. Sure it was a joke the first time but I've been replacing them for years.
Right now he's got a Kathula with about 200 tiny holes in it. Still good!

Or the Nissan guy.

Or the Mike Rowe guy.

This one got me:

"And she said it has “broad and dangerous consequences,” pointing to
children who were hospitalized after eating marijuana-infused products
that mimicked candy packaging."

You really think that the dog is gonna accidentally get drunk off your whiskey?

>But free advertisement does indeed increase revenue.

That's what people say to free lancers /contractors to get them to do free work.

But lets say you are 100% right.

In that case you go to the copyright / trademark holders and you make your case, get a license to use said trademark / copyrights.

While he misspoke, this is a case of trademark

You misread what the name for the supposed toys was. I described something that looked like another thing with a different name.

Oh boy lol

> the dog is gonna accidentally get drunk off your whiskey?

no, but vet bills (and 'emotional trauma') for someone's beloved dog accidentally biting into real JD bottle can well be a basis for a civil claim

Lol this exact toy is my springer spaniel’s favourite toy and it’s durable asf. Loud as hell too, and sQuEaLs when she really squeezes it. The lawsuit is likely more about them being upset about the poop joke than anything concerning copyright infringement.

Idk if it was related but that reminds me of that time some company sued not just Blizzard but pretty much every MMO claiming they had a copyright on any system where someone communicates via text in a game. The litigants were known copyright trolls and I'm pretty sure it got chucked out.

Trademarks are categorized. I seriously doubt JD has a trademarked dog toy.

No but they are buying it because it is related to Jack Daniels. If they want to make a toy alcohol bottle just use something completely made up... Oh wait. That's not funny so it won't sell.

Law suits cost less than advertising and this one is likely to cause much discussion on social Media with pictures of their product plastered liberally around!

Love it when I click on an article and get a "this article isn't available in your region". I wonder what's holding them back from deleting the location check and just allowing people to view their mildy interesting article if they aren't from the US.

If someone's not capable of recognizing the difference between a piece of rubber that's labelled a chew toy, they shouldn't be buying alcohol lmao

Maybe a more general “novelty items”.

What vet bills? Are you trying to imply that a dog would break its teeth or shatter the bottle? If a dog bit into a glass bottle they'd definitely be able to tell the difference.

"Telsa" isn't a parody. It's just a typo.

If I recall correctly, Budweiser's primary complaint against ButtWiper was that butwiper also tasted like budweiser. Or that Budweuser tasted like buttwipe, i don't remember exactly.

Yes, you've just described the definition of parody. Which happens to be protected by the first amendment.

Hahah this joke is funny because it tastes like crap!

Unless it's for copyright reasons, having an article be unavailable in your region is pretty much a straight-up admission that they don't want to have to comply with the EU's General Data Protection Regulation and that they're selling every bit of the data they can gather about you to whoever the fuck they feel like.

It's worth going to court. See examples at the bottom of this page: https://www.cotmanip.com/articles/fair-use-parody#:~:text=A%20parody%20is%20fair%20use,which%20one%20work%20imitates%20another.

The toy doesn't seem to make fun or comment on the jack Daniels brand, it's just a copy with changes.

I suspect Jack Daniels is about to learn about the Streisand effect.

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No Jack Daniel's is in the right. I went to drink my whiskey and nearly choked on a dog toy. I was so confused.

Clear Parody and not an alternative for the real product 🤷‍♂️

It is necessary for companies to defend their IP.

But not to the supreme court. And not when it's obvious parody.

It was a valid dispute.

When the lawsuit first started. Taking it this far is whats stupid.

It’s a copy with changes like not being a glass bottle that’s filled with liquid.

Nah I doubt anything will happen

Jack Daniel's is just mad they didn't hop on the train first and make their own. Heaven Hill sells squeaky toy bottles of Larceny for dogs

That would be literally the dumbest dog in history if it did that.

Hey, dont insult the people who like eating crap. Now those who like chewing on products that clean crappy butts….

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Does Jack Daniel's not know parody is protected 🤔

Better take away the gun shaped stuffy also. Just incase they go after a real gun

Dogs wouldn't confuse the scent of the plastic with the scent of the glass/paper. Plastic is really stinky to the dogs... Especially if they like the toy, it'll probably smell like cortisol from their saliva the last time they played with it.

The design, typefaces and bottle color aren't even the same. I could understand if everything was designed exactly the same... and actually sold alcohol - but it's a dog toy.

Waste of money.

I looked thinking it was going to be literally just a plush Jack Daniel's bottle. Though I would have understood a minimally changed "Jack Russell's" bottle 🙃

But Jack doesn't own the concept of black labels and old timey font.

Well they did.

Yeah I’m surprised, this seemed like an easy pass to me.

Cert granted.

Most cases are. Frankly, if they want to make things like this more acceptable, they needed to take the case. As things stand now, in most courts this would be a violation. Of course, the lower court ruling here seems like an outlier, so they may end up strengthening brand owner rights if they reverse, which is usually why they take IP cases.