PornHub owner MindGeek is threatening a kebab shop in NYC with trademark infringement::If you’ve been listening to the Vergecast you know the standard for trademark infringement is “likelihood of confusion,” and while it’s true the Hub is known for ⚫️🟠, something tells me the folks walking into Doner Haus aren’t confused about what’s on the menu. Full story in Chelsea News, a hyperlocal NYC news site, via Verge pal Alexandra Roberts.
Trademark’s a weird one, if you don’t defend it you lose it. So it’s kind of a lose-lose situation from the trademarkers position. They have to pursue or they lose their trademark which they value
It’s true they have to defend it, but only if there’s actual infringement. Generally trademarks have a scope in which they’re valid. A restaurant and a porn website seem unlikely to ever be within scope, to the point I suspect if the restaurant ever renamed itself to PornHub, it’d be more likely to be considered infringing GrubHub’s trademarks than PornHub’s owners.
Idk the combination of the white text followed by black text within an orange rounded rectangle logo when paired with tag lines like ‘get stuffed’ might lead people to think it’s a subsidiary or something similar.
A place known for it’s sausages and a restaurant may seem like a strange business partnership but stranger things have happened.
Yeah but if you don’t sue, a legitimate infringer in the future might use not enforcing on the trademark there to argue there own case. Trademark law really doesn’t leave trademark holders in a good position. Though I imagine that a lawsuit when those laws were written weren’t nearly as prohibitively expensive.
Again, trademarks generally have a scope in which they’re valid. Pornhub only needs to sue a restaurant if it plans to open a chain of restaurants or otherwise enter the catering industry.
I mean, if they don’t care about the actual usage, they could licence it for a buck or something
As a non-American, US intellectual property law feels absolutely ridiculous to me sometimes. It feels like it incentivizes all the wrong behaviours.
It’s hard to balance but it prevents trademark squatters from existing like in the domain name space
As a US Citizen I agree. We also let corporations lobby to make the rules have no relation to what they were set up for.
Copyright for instance was supposed to allow people to use novel work in the open without getting copied for a short period of time before it became public domain. Now Copyright is nearly perpetual, it keeps getting extended when a certain mouse is close to losing their copyright.
They think this is bad, there’s a seafood van near my local pub called “Prawn Hub” with the same logo design.
We have a butcher near us called Pork Hub also with the same logo
Cars around me all seem to be sporting bream hub bumper stickers
And we’ve got a nearby car dealership called CarHub with the same logo design as well. Doesn’t even sound close though.
😂 I get why PornHub needs to defend it’s TM, but that is hilarious and if I owned PornHub I would consider that free advertising.
I’m not defending PornHub hear, but sometimes you don’t want to leave associatable stuff up simply because you font know if they might do something stupid and harm their brand. Like if it turned out heavy sexual harassment/assault was happening at PrawnHub and it gets found out; now people might associate that with PornHub, especially with the sexual aspect.
Yep, there is a vendor that shows up to farmers’ markets here called “CornHub” with the same design.
I just texted my brother who lives in NYC to visit it before they’re forced to change it lol. I also told him I want a review because I’ve never had German kebabs before. I will follow up with the review and maybe pics later.
German döner are actually Turkish. Germany has a massive Turkish population. It’s so large they have areas in some cities that are primarily Turkish. Even the Turkish president broadcasts to the German Turkish community at times as he knows how influential they are.
All this to say, a German döner is a Turkish one, albeit probably adjusted to German tastes.
Have I had one? Yes, many. Are they good? Definitely.
However, I like the Australian variety just as much, but they are definitely same same different.
That is only partly true. The Döner Kebab was invented in Berlin (by a guy with Turkish origen). Due to the high Turkish population in Germany there are tons of Döner Shops and it is actually much easier to find a Döner in Germany than in Turkey.
It is also where the best Döner is found. The Picture of this NYC Kebab did not make me want to get one. Looked way too thin and i dont get the packaging. I want my Kebab to be rolled into alumium foil and it needs to have sexy curves because of how stuffed the Döner is.
Excuse me, i have go get one right now.
Ahhh jealous! Nice. Have a bite for me!
Excellent. Thanks for the extra info.
Likely wont be forced to change.
My guess is that this is going to go the same way as McDonalds v everything with the letters M(a)c, and Starbucks v Sattar Buksh
I read way too much of that article
Ive seen plenty of them“Restaurant selling badly-packed-kebabs, is sued by content host showing videos of badly-packed-kebabs” The irony…
You forgot to include “stepsister” in the description.
Well, with the picture cut off at first I thought it said “boner haus.”
Well… You’re looking for flesh in both places so 🤷♂️
BönerHaus?
A trademark is always connected to the specific goods or services sold to customers with that trademark. You can’t register a word, phrase, symbol, or design as a trademark without specifically identifying the goods or services being used. Your trademark isn’t limited to one good or service. It can be used with many different goods or services, and include both goods and services.
Although the determination of whether you have goods or services can be confusing, it’s critical that you make the correct identification. Think about it this way: What do customers purchase from you? An actual physical product that bears your trademark? Or do they hire you to perform an activity for them? If it’s products, you have goods. If it’s activities, you have services.
For example, a registered trademark for the name A Good YarnTM for a bookstore would prevent another company from registering the name A Good YarnTM for another bookstore.
By being specific about the goods or services your trademark represents in your registration, you clearly identify the scope of use. You can legally prevent others from using the same or a similar trademark for related goods or services without your permission. Applying for more goods or services than you currently use, or intend to use, is likely to cause your application to be denied. We may inquire as to whether the identification you select accurately identifies your goods or services.
It’s not quiet so cut and dry. The law is written to cover 90% but this isn’t a criminal matter, it’s a civil one, and civil suits are always decided in courtrooms. If I created a weed dispensary and called it Instant Pot and stylized my logo like that of a popular countertop pressure cooker they’d be well within their rights to sue despite being wildly different industries.
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I’m not a trademark lawyer but I’m not sure parody would fly there.
Reminds me how McDonald’s lost their Big Mac trademark in the EU.
They had registered it as a restaurant name among others. So the EUIPO invalidated their big mac trademark, when they tried to get a restaurant chain called Supermac to change name. https://www.forbes.com/sites/ceciliarodriguez/2019/01/16/how-mcdonalds-lost-its-big-mac-in-europe/
It appears that the trademark was at least partly restored earlier this year, but I am not sure. I’m no trademark lawyer.
All I’m getting out of this is it’s potentially possible to get doner kebab in the US, and I should take a trip to New York
There’s tons of good doner kebab in the US, and you don’t need to go to NY to get it. Sorry it’s not in your area, though! That’s a huge bummer.
They have a lot of gyros that aren’t gyros and are actually turks doing kebabs so there might be more than you think
There’s a place in Dallas with döner kebab in the name.
Yeah, but is it comparable to German doner kebab?
There’s ten places with that in the name where I live, and all of them are pretending to be doner kebab
We used to have a pretty good German street food restaurant in Fresno of all places. They had a pretty awesome döner. Unfortunately that only lasted like 2 years before closing.
I live in a doner desert. I mean, there are places that CLAIM to have doner kebab around here, but they have apparently never been to Germany. There’s something so perfect about Turkish food with heavy German influence that I haven’t been able to find anywhere outside of Germany.
I’m glad you had two years of joy in Fresno, but sorry about the closure
Damn I knew verge was shit but they’re just linking to other sites articles and presenting it as a tweet?
“Come get stuffed”? “Big Doner Energy”?
Cmon
Mindgeek is within their rights
Wait until they see “Smoke Hub” in Bakersfield, CA.
It’s literally the porn hub logo.
It’s dumb but this is how trademarks work in America. If PH didn’t do this then someone else could use this to show that they don’t care about their trademark anymore. If PH isn’t a dick they will let the kebab shop use it for a nominal licensing fee or let them change it over some period of time without fighting them too much.
There is a gas station in Iowa that uses the same logo. I think it’s called like 1Nine or something like that.
