Posted on 07/24/2014 8:32:30 PM PDT by Impala64ssa
The New Jersey Turnpike Authority wants a pizza shop in the Florida Keys to pay a big toll for using a logo similar to the Garden State Parkway's green and yellow signs.
The agency sued Jersey Boardwalk Pizza Tuesday in federal court over the logo it uses for its two pizza shops and on merchandise sold online. It said in the suit that the company is trying to trade upon the fame of the Garden State Parkway logo to attract customers and potential franchisees.
JoyAnn Kenny, a lawyer with the Red Bank-based firm of Marks & Klein LLP, which represents the company, defended its use of the logo in a letter to turnpike authority lawyers included in the suit. She wrote that there's no way anyone would confuse a highway and a pizza place 1,300 miles away.
"Given the very distinct difference in the goods and services offered by our respective clients (yours being a governmental agency providing highway maintenance and travel related services exclusively in the state of New Jersey - ours being a franchisor of pizza restaurants providing the opportunity to provide delicious pizza and Italian food to patrons of its licensed restaurants), there is no plausible likelihood of confusion," she wrote.
The turnpike authority sued over two logos, one used by the pizza business and one by a franchising business it owns. Kenny said that logo for the restaurants was approved by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and has been used since April 2011.
New Jersey says that "there is no question" that the logos "were directly copied and appropriated from Plaintiff's famous Garden State Parkway Logo." It asked a judge to require the company to stop using the logos and to destroy any merchandise that includes it.
It calls the Garden State Parkway one of the most iconic and well known highways in the country. Its logo includes a green map of the state with a line showing the highway on a yellow background with the words "Garden State Parkway" written in yellow on a green background.
Jersey Boardwalk Pizza also includes a green map of the state and its title written in yellow on a green background.
Trademark infringment involving a gov't entity? The Garden State Pkwy, though built in the 50's mostly with bonds and financed through tolls, today it's largely maintained with NJ state, and to an extent, federal taxes. I would think Gov Christie has more pressing issues to be concerned with.
Now you know why Kentucky Bourbon is now Bluegress Bourbon, why Kentucky Fried Chicken is now KFC, and why the Kentucky Derby is now the Run for the Roses.
No proof one inspired the other; no chance of confusion of association; significant differences. No case.
Jersey, England should sue New Jersey...
Road pizza.
>> The New Jersey Turnpike Authority wants
Wants, wants, wants... there’s no limit to the bureaucrats’ appetite.
You remember when all the subways in America sued Subway, right? Because travel on an underground train is SOOOOOOOOOOOO fundamentally similar to eating a sandwich. Idiots.
Reminds me of Quaker Steak and Lube. I don’t believe Quaker State ever went after them.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quaker_Steak_and_Lube
They have a case under the concept of dilution of a unique trademark.
wow they should hold the presser in downtown camden. with bullet proof vests. why don’t ya fix that.
Oh plz.
What harm is the state done..
‘less a pizza delivery is late.. or??
the dough doesn’t rise..
Looks like they’re both based on the big zero that Obama uses as his logo...
Not buying it. If anything, the sign is reinforcing the association of those colors and the map with New Jersey. Depriciation is a key concept of dilution. And the trademark dilution revision act requires the trademark to be outstanding to the public as a whole: in this case, the pizza is plainly being marketed to former residents of the NY-NJ area; good luck trying to prove that someone from Arizona or Montana or Michgan could tell the NJT from the GSP, let alone identify the colors and logo. The GSP isn’t even used by interstate travelers.
it does depend on the way the trademark was described when they filed. i think the state screwed up on the trademark filing. and they are a bunch of a$$holes for sueing a hoagie shop in CA. i see no tm on the logo. first clue it is a bogus lawsuit from my beach passage state.
I grew up in Kentucky but have not lived there since 1988. I’ve never heard Kentucky bourbon (as in bourbon made in Kentucky)ever called Bluegrass Bourbon. The latter sounds more like a brand name than does Kentucky bourbon which I’ve always taken to mean bourbon made in one of several distilleries in Kentucky.
Was there a lawsuit on this? If so, when? Who were the parties involved?
Thanks for your reply.
Since Kentucky backed off (And probably negotiated a clause preventing KFC from causing ridicule of the state and its liberal governor), that’s been KFC’s line. But the change was made before KFC introduced grilled chicken, but right after Kentucky started suing people for using its name, so I’m not buying it one bit.
By the way, KFC didn’t explain the name change until fans of Popeye’s started spreading the rumor that KFC no longer uses real chicken.
Shades of the Chicago Transit Authority
Government entities at all levels should be forbidden to hold patents, registered trademarks, or any other form of intellectual copyright. The worthless slugs can’t even properly manage governmental affairs but they need to protect their precious logos which amount to medieval coats of arms of nobility.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.