Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/11/26/uspto-denies-vegan-butcher.html
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Based on what I read, it seems like this phrase wouldn’t be trademarkable for exactly the reason given. Similarly, there’s an outdoor company that trademarked the word “Backcountry” and then sued everyone who used it in a business or product name. Then there was a big backlash and the company had a revelation that suing all these people wasn’t in line with their core values. God help us all not to have such inscrutable core values as them.
I recently applied for a trademark of my own, on my own, without help from lawyers. Wonder how that will go…
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I’m surprised that the peace symbol 
has never been registered as a trademark. As per Wikipedia:
In 1970, two US private companies tried to register the peace symbol as a trade mark: the Intercontinental Shoe Corporation of New York and Luv, Inc. of Miami. Commissioner of Patents William E. Schuyler Jr, said that the symbol “could not properly function as a trade mark subject to registration by the Patent Office”.
But hey! There’s still time.
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What bullshit.
I’m no vegan, but I’ve eaten food from the Herbivorous Butcher, and it’s really good. I recommend it to everyone. Whatever products Nestlé is planning to make will pale in comparison.
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USPTO are at the intersection of inept and corrupt.
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General Dynamics should get busy with their filing!
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Well, it’s a different meaning. Nestlé got it because they plan to butcher vegans.
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If there’s anyone I’d trust to run a vegan specialty food shop, it’s someone named after a vegetable.
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well, THAT’S a bunch of fuckin’ bullshit.
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You see, what the Walches fail to understand is that Nestlé has much, much more money.
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So, is a vegan butcher a butcher that only butchers animals that have died of natural causes and without humans having impeded their lives in any way prior?
Because that’s the only way I can imagine how the term ‘vegan butcher’ could have any real meaning.
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Also not vegan, also buy shed loads of their stuff every time I’m in the area. Their “ribs” and “steaks” are new-timey comfort food without the “itis”, especially during the wintery bullshit we Minnesotans have going on right this very minute.
Those siblings are awesome, driven and put in the years of time to make that place and the food they make fantastic. Every multinational with a room full of food scientists has been poring over the very different textures (than other meat free foods out there) they have developed. I figured it was only a matter of time before HB and one of the many minions of the food giants crossed paths.
I hope Herbivorous Butcher comes out on top.
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I assume they make big slabs of “vegan meat” and then chop them up with cleavers
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Ok, but to be fair, if I was a vegan and I called myself “Kale”, I might expect a little pushback once in a while.
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In all cases: fuck Nestle, they’re evil.
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I assume they make big slabs of “vegan meat” and then chop them up with cleavers
they do, actually. You can watch them make it, and then cut it up. The steaks are probably 1 1/2"-2" thick.
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You’d think that. But the USPTO is not exactly the brain trust of American bureaucracy. They have little funding and less oversight.
I guarantee you they saw a small business and applied a modicum of scrutiny to the application while rubber stamping an application submitted by a household brand with an expensive law firm.
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Don’t USPTO use a database with all submitted/granted/rejected applications? It would save a lot of work, every trademark on the database can be automatically rejected.
I think Go Nagai did it already in the 70s…
