{"id":10341,"date":"2008-12-01T22:55:34","date_gmt":"2008-12-02T03:55:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/?p=10341"},"modified":"2011-08-05T14:53:15","modified_gmt":"2011-08-05T18:53:15","slug":"cal-milk-board-wants-tm-for-got-breastmilk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2008\/12\/01\/cal-milk-board-wants-tm-for-got-breastmilk\/","title":{"rendered":"Cal. Milk Board wants TM for &#8220;got breastmilk?&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/files\/2008\/12\/nav_newsroom_hdr.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-10346\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/files\/2008\/12\/nav_newsroom_hdr.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"124\" height=\"54\" \/><\/a> &amp;\/or<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/files\/2008\/12\/pdfservlet.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-10345\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/files\/2008\/12\/pdfservlet-300x97.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"247\" height=\"80\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><em><strong>A <\/strong><\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2008\/07\/30\/got-jugs\/#comment-209350\">comment<\/a> this evening by Jill Jalen goes a long way to solve the mystery raised in our post  &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2008\/07\/30\/got-jugs\/\">got jugs?<\/a>&#8221; (July 30, 2008).\u00a0 Experts on breasts, babies, and trademark law &#8212; along with those interested in jugs and lawyer antics &#8212; all wondered why the California Milk Processor Board wanted Alaskan artist and breastfeeding advocate Barbara Holmes to stop using the slogan &#8220;<em>got breastmilk?<\/em>&#8221; on her onesies and infant t-shirts.\u00a0 They said Holmes&#8217; slogan infringed on their &#8220;got milk?&#8221; trademark, but that seemed unlikely.\u00a0 Jill&#8217;s Comment brings things into better focus:\u00a0 On October 6, 2008, the Board&#8217;s lawyers, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.klalawfirm.com\/main.html\">Knox Lemmon Anapolsky LLP<\/a>, filed a <a href=\"http:\/\/tmportal.uspto.gov\/external\/portal\/tow?SRCH=Y&amp;isSubmitted=true&amp;details=&amp;SELECT=US+Serial+No&amp;TEXT=77586468\">trademark application<\/a> with the PTO for a mark that:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">&#8220;<em>consists of the wording &#8216;got breastmilk?&#8217; in all lower case letters in Phenix American font<\/em>.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/files\/2008\/12\/keyn1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-10343\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/files\/2008\/12\/keyn1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"47\" height=\"47\" \/><\/a> According to the <a href=\"http:\/\/tarr.uspto.gov\/servlet\/tarr?regser=serial&amp;entry=77586468\">TARR status report<\/a> for the as-yet-unassigned claim with the Serial Number 77586468, the Board intends to use the &#8220;got breastmilk?&#8221; mark with the following products:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>baby blankets, children&#8217;s blankets and burp cloths<\/li>\n<li>breast pads and breast-nursing pads<\/li>\n<li>baby bottles, cups adapted for feeding babies and children, pacifiers, sippy cups, breast milk storage bottles, breast pumps and breast shields<\/li>\n<li>baby backpacks and baby carriers worn on the body<\/li>\n<li>clothing, namely, <em>t-shirts<\/em>, shirts, short-sleeved shirts, long-sleeved shirts, sweat shirts, infant bodysuits, pants, infant sleepers, hats, caps, cloth bibs, socks and <em>infant onesies<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">When the story broke, a lot of folks ridiculed Knox Lemmon for making such a frivolous trademark dilution claim &#8212; arguing that there could be no confusion between the hand-written &#8220;got breastmilk?&#8221; logo used by Holmes and the well-known wording and font of \u201cgot milk?<span><sup>\u00ae<\/sup><\/span>.&#8221;\u00a0 <em>See <\/em>\u201c\u2018<a href=\"http:\/\/www.adn.com\/matsu\/story\/474936.html\">Got milk\u2019 lawyers huff at Talkeetna artist\u2019s parody<\/a>\u201d (<em>Anchorage Daily News<\/em>, July 25, 2008); <em>via <a href=\"http:\/\/overlawyered.com\/2008\/07\/got-breastmilk\/\">Overlawyered<\/a>.com; and see \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/legalblogwatch.typepad.com\/legal_blog_watch\/2008\/07\/got-lawsuits.html\">Legal Blog Watch<\/a>;\u201d <\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/?p=414\"><em>Language Log<\/em><\/a>; and <em><a href=\"http:\/\/backwoodslawyer.blogspot.com\/2008\/07\/california-milk-processors-board-goes.html\">Alaska Backwoods Lawyer<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">Even this weblog said the &#8220;attack on Barbara Holmes and her onesies is silly as a matter of law and one more example that we\u2019ve become an &#8216;overlawyered&#8217; nation.&#8221;\u00a0 However, we always caution others who mock the conduct of otherwise competent lawyers that we might not know all the pertinent facts (or motives), and that more information might indeed show us that dollars were at stake and the action was defensible.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/files\/2008\/07\/461-3816692highlightprod_affiliate7.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"120\" height=\"90\" \/> That seems to be the case here &#8211; &#8211; the Milk Board apparently wanted to protect more than its &#8220;got milk?&#8221; franchise.\u00a0 Nonetheless, if Stephen Byers and the other lawyers at Knox Lemmon had trouble with Holmes&#8217; logo, they should be even more worried about this <a href=\"http:\/\/momsboutique.com\/shopsite_sc\/store\/html\/product8.html\">baby onesie<\/a> product from <a href=\"http:\/\/momsboutique.com\/shopsite_sc\/store\/html\/product8.html\">The Mom&#8217;s Boutique<\/a> in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, which appears to use the same font as the mark in the new application, as well as the original &#8220;got milk?&#8221; campaign:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">.. baby <a>onesie<\/a> and t-shirt .. <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/files\/2008\/07\/babyngotbm_2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"162\" height=\"145\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Maybe trademark experts will help us determine whether the prior uses by the breastmilk advocates are a bar to the Milk Board&#8217;s application for a mark on &#8220;got breastmilk?&#8221;\u00a0 Naturally, if this new product line is projected to be a cash cow, CMPB might be willing to use a little monetary suasion to obtain the rights to &#8220;got breastmilk?&#8221;.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">dairy country\u2026<br \/>\nin the pharmacy window<br \/>\na breast pump display<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">\u2026 ed markowski &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.geocities.com\/coloradopoets\/bearcreekhaiku.html\"><em>Bear Creek Haiku<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p>silence<br \/>\nthe baby finds<br \/>\nthe breast<\/p>\n<p>\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026.  by Yu Chang from <em>Upstate Dim Sum<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&amp;\/or A comment this evening by Jill Jalen goes a long way to solve the mystery raised in our post &#8220;got jugs?&#8221; (July 30, 2008).\u00a0 Experts on breasts, babies, and trademark law &#8212; along with those interested in jugs and lawyer antics &#8212; all wondered why the California Milk Processor Board wanted Alaskan artist and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3513],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lawyer-news-or-ethics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kP1R-2GN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10341"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10341\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12101,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10341\/revisions\/12101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}