I’ve said it roughly a zillion times: trademark bullying exists because it works. One of the unfortunate inequities of our system is that having a large legal warchest simply allows someone to push around others over trademark “concerns” that aren’t valid. The formula for this is consistent. Large corporate interest with lawyers at the ready will police the country for any uses of a term in any way close to the corporation’s trademark, and C&D its victim into making a change, which itself only happens because the victim can’t afford to fight back. It sucks, but it’s reality.
But I’ll admit I didn’t expect the koozie people to have such a dirth of chill over this sort of thing. The Koozie Group is the company that holds the trademark for the word “koozie”, which I didn’t even know was a registered mark. I personally have always used the term generically to refer to a drink sleeve. Better Wheel Workshops makes drink sleeves out of wood and named its product “the woodzie”.
Better Wheel Workshops in Newfane produces wood can insulators previously known as “The Woodzie.” The husband and wife team made them for about a decade until the Koozie Group filed a petition to cancel the trademark.
The Chevaliers said they were informed about a year-and-a-half ago that Koozie Group, a large corporation based in Clearwater, Fla. that owns the trademark phrase “Koozie,” filed a petition with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to cancel “The Woodzie” trademark due to potential confusion.
Now, the couple is tentatively changing the name of the product to “Tree Sleeve.” The website, betterwheelvt.com, will stay and any mention of “The Woodzie” will be removed.
“We have until the end of the year for the full switchover,” Jeff said. “We’re notifying all wholesale partners of the change in the name and rebranding products in house.”
