Hi all, thought I’d share a couple stories I found were interesting.
The largest youtuber, Mr Beast, got sued for trademark infringement for the use of the name “Deez Nutz” on one of his candy bars by a peanut company called “Dee’s Nuts”. Lawyers for Mr Beast unsuccessfully argued that the term has been used by millions on the internet as a way to interject humour and is completely unrelated to the peanut company. A federal judge ruled in favour of the peanut company and it appears the two parties have settled outside of court. The lawsuit feels ridiculous and I don’t see how a chocolate branded on a meme has damaged a Florida peanut company in any way.
For those unfamiliar with the term: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/deez-nuts
The chocolate: https://feastables.com/products/deez-nutz-chocolate
A fan of country singer Luke Combs was sued for copyright infringement because she sold 18 tumblers using his name and character. The lawsuit was served by email (which is allowed for some reason), which the fan never saw. After failing to respond for 30 days, the court found her in default and imposed a $250,000 judgement. After Combs found out about the lawsuit, he told his attorneys to drop the lawsuit and stated he will be selling his own tumblers, with the proceeds going to help the fan.
Article: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/dec/14/luke-combs-country-singer-merchandise
Communications Law
Hi Youngwook, I saw this Mr.Beast news everywhere on social media too and thought the case was quite interesting and ridiculous at the same time. I would’ve thought that the federal judge could have found the entire meme phrase to be un-registrable as a trademark. I recently posted about a similarly funny trademark claim that Taco Bell made to squash the trademarked term “Taco Tuesday” and some experts claimed that phrases that become ubiquitous in the marketplace and any attempt to enforce the trademark registration would likely fail in court.
I checked this company’s website and apparently the “Dee’s Nuts” name comes from one of the co-founder’s grandma whose nickname was Dee. However, they acknowledge that the name was aimed at making the same joke that Mr.Beast was trying to make to increase sales. In the modern age, these meme phrases are so common and ubiquitous that I don’t agree with the Federal judge’s opinion. Perhaps the legal system will become increasingly more modernized and will accept memes as common phrases that cannot be trademarked in the future.
Interesting stories! I feel like the judge may not have fully appreciated the value of the meme at the time and the recognition it still has… additionally “Dee’s” clearly refers to a person possessive and while the two sound similarly out loud I don’t think there would be much grounds to argue consumer confusion between the two. They’re different products completely.
I saw the Luke Combs story on tiktok and thought of this class! It was interesting how Luke never knew about the lawsuit until it reached the media, showing how the copyright to his own name and pictures gets signed away to the record label. The fan wasn’t even the type of target the label was supposed to go after – they usually targeted large international dealers spinning out hundreds of pieces of counterfeit goods, not small businesses making a dozen or so pieces. Does this stop it from being a copyright infringement just because it’s smaller in scale? No. But I would think the fan would have had a good shot at making a case for fair dealing if she’d seen the email (and the case was Canadian of course).
This is a very interesting case! I think that the judge should have considered how “DEEZ” is an alternative way of spelling “these” and is not meant to refer to the given name “Dee” in any way, shape or form. It seems to me that the Mr. Beast chocolate bar had no intent of violating the trademark of “Dee’s Nuts” but rather was meant to capitalize on a popular internet meme. As such, I believe the judge erred in finding that there is trademark infringement in this situation.