Intellectual Property Law

"Marketplace" Radio Show Features Summertime Trademark Dispute

By Michael Atkins

Tonight’s “Marketplace” show on NPR (one of my favorites) featured a summertime trademark dispute I couldn’t pass up: Mister Softee cracking down on ice cream truck copycats. (Audio and transcript here.)

Turns out there are lots of ice cream trucks out there with the same blue-and-white colors, stylized graphics, and jingle that bring Mister Softee to mind.

Well, Mister Softee is hitting back. Its lawyer has filed trademark infringement lawsuits against “hundreds of ice cream truck owners” and reportedly has never lost a case.

The suits are needed, one of its distributors says, because franchisees pay $100,000 for a genuine MISTER SOFTEE truck on top of thousands of dollars in royalties. They get hurt when a knockoff truck starts working the neighborhood. 

“DISTRIBUTOR: I’m not able to maximize my potential as a Mister Softee when there are copycats around who don’t have the overhead that I have, but are still fooling the kids that they are Mister Softee.

“REPORTER: You don’t think the kids distinguish?

“DISTRIBUTOR: They don’t, because kids are impulsive buyers. All they see is a blue and white truck, and they start running, ‘Mommy, I want an ice cream.’”

Now, kids would probably run to their Moms for a dollar even if the truck was orange and black, but I get his point.

Ripoff artists out there: What’s lower than a counterfeit ice cream truck? On a hot summer day, your product sells itself. Do you really need to pass yourselves off as Mister Softee?

Full post as published by Seattle Trademark Lawyer on August 12, 2008 (boomark / email).