Per comments from Holmes himself, the idea for the name had nothing to do with Tolkien’s works, nor the movie. It was instead to denote royalty and lordship. I have seen nothing in any of the reporting to indicate that this had to do with anything other than the name of the food truck. The truck wasn’t going to be themed after the books or films. There wasn’t going to be any trade dress or vehicle wraps harkening back to those works of fiction. There wasn’t to be a flavor of chicken called “One wing to rule them all.”
So trademark holders being douchebags as usual. The Lord of the Rings isn’t associated with chicken wings in anyway so how could consumers be confused?
I’ve also never understood things like this from a marketing perspective. Like this is definitely dissimilar, but even if it were an on the nose deal with like “Sauron Sauce” or whatever as one of their offerings, you’re still getting recognition.
Even if the Tolkien estate were concerned about the cheapening of their “brand”, who tf cares? It’s obviously not about that, because I just checked and there is a line of LOTR Funko Pops for fuck’s sake.
And if a work like The Lord of the Rings can’t stand on its own (with regard to seriousness and artistic value) with the addition of kitschy wing trucks, I don’t know what else would.
Seems like a win-win to me, but then again, I fucking hate trademarking and patenting laws in general. Intellectual property is a pretty spurious concept at best and courts around the world have consistently shown it is a tool used to quash innovation, promote stagnant wealth, and keep the heel on the middle and lower classes.
I think the Funko-pops are actually a good example of why they need to protect the trademark. What if the estate does want to start marketing wing sauces? What if they want to sponsor a hot wing eating contest? Or host an aerial stunt show? Would they need to split the proceeds with the guy who owns the food truck?
All of these ideas are stupid, and would cheapen the brand, but it’s their brand. If they don’t defend it, it makes future protections harder. If they don’t fight Lord of the Wings, what about Lord of the Strings? Lord of the Springs? Slings? Things? Blings?
Brand dilution isn’t just about the one narrow use case.
I agree that the Funko Pop example cheapens their property. Doesn’t seem that they care.
And of course it’s not about just one wing truck. Estates like these are not innovating and are not holding air shows or wing competitions. And unless they’re stealing trade secrets of making wing sauces or the intricacies of hosting aerial events, I say let the estate compete in those areas or even choose to sponsor these already established entities who’ve entered the market before the estate did anything with their IP.
Like this is definitely dissimilar, but even if it were an on the nose deal with like “Sauron Sauce” or whatever as one of their offerings, you’re still getting recognition.
At least in US Intellectual Property Law there are rules for some areas that once you, as the rights holder, know of possibly infringement you must defend your IP or you risk losing it.
Yes, but trademarks only apply to a single industry in the US.
I could open a coffee shop called Ford Motor Company, and Ford couldn’t do a damn thing about it.
Not sure how it works in NZ, though.
In law, dilution refers to the use of a trademark or trade name in commerce that is sufficiently similar to a famous mark that by association it confuses or diminishes the public’s perception of the famous mark.
In dilution, confusion literally is the issue. The point is: literally fucking nobody would be confused.
Just ask Apple Music how well that went fighting Apple Computers for 40 fucking years or so.
It ended with Apple Music putting all the Beatles music catalogue on iTunes.
Nobody was ever confused about Apple Music and Apple Computers.
Just like nobody would be confused by this, considering it has no relation to LOTR other than a name.
Well, I’m only familiar with US law on the subject. NZ might see things differently.
But in the US, dilution of a famous mark doesn’t necessarily mean confusion. For example, you couldn’t use Apple’s famous white apple logo even for a company that had nothing to do with technology.
Satire isn’t protected in New Zealand?
I don’t think a food truck counts as satire. Satire is like the “Bored of the Rings” Lampoon book from the '70s, it actually had something to say regarding the material it was satirical of.
I may be underestimating the satirical capacity of a food truck, or maybe the legal definition of satire in NZ, but to me it’s just a cheeky name.
The funny thing is Lord if the Rings is actually public domain in New Zealand as of January this year.
I want to say this was an obvious outcome. But I guess it is an unrelated industry. However I don’t buy that you come up with lord of the wings and think that it’s so original and so unrelated and so obviously has to do wth lordship and royalty.
What about “Lord of the Fries”? If that one doesn’t get shutdown then neither should this one.
