If you follow my posts here on SBN, you probably know that I love to write about food trucks and trademarks. This month, I get to report on a news story that combines two of my favorite topics, and an 80’s rock band. Sweet.
Image from twistedsister.com
Mobile Cuisine is reporting that Twisted Sister is preparing to take legal action against the Minneapolis food truck “Twisted Sister House of Hunger.” Although Cody Allen, the food truck operator, says he feels like it’s a case of the big guys going after the little guys, guitarist and a manager Jay Jay French says there wasn’t really a choice. He’s well-informed.
Trademark law forces a trademark owner to either enforce a trademark against an infringer, or potentially lose their rights in the mark. Essentially, once the first person is allowed to use a trademark without any legal recourse from the mark owner, subsequent infringers can come along and point to the lack of action against the first infringer. It isn’t just the little guys the band has to enforce their rights against, either, French states that the band has had to enforce their trademark against giants like Six Flags, Urban Decay, and Harley-Davidson.
In an effort to show that the band is just protecting it’s legal rights and not just bullying a small business for cash, French asserts that the band is happy to legally license their name to the food truck, and notes that ““One hundred percent of the licensing money will go to the OUIF (Ocular Immunology and Uveitis Foundation).”