This battle won’t get bloody, but it might get ugly.
The question is whether the phrase “The Vegan Butcher” can be trademarked. And if so, who can lay claim to it?
The Herbivorous Butcher, a sibling-owned Minneapolis business lauded as America’s first meat-free market, is taking on Nestlé, a multinational food corporation, in hopes of either winning the legal right to continue using the phrase or to keep it in the public domain so others in the growing marketplace for plant-based foods can use it, too.
The dispute has been playing out in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office since June in a process that could take a year or more to resolve if a settlement can’t be reached. While the fight for rights to the phrase can be seen as one between a small family business and a corporate giant, it highlights the stakes in a lucrative and rapidly expanding slice of the food industry.
The market for plant-based foods has been growing by double digits in recent years, and now is worth almost $4.5 billion, according to Spins, a market-research firm focused on the natural, organic and specialty products industry. Last year sales of plant-based foods, still a niche player, grew 11% in the past year compared with a 2% jump in retail-food sales.
Reda More At: http://www.startribune.com/the-herbivorous-butcher-takes-on-nestle-in-david-and-goliath-trademark-battle/565020632/
