Best of 2010: The generic agony of defeat

First published on February 11, 2010.

The best LIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION® blog item title ever was evidently wasted  — and I’m sorry I didn’t keep you quite so up to date on this — but, as Ryan Gile reported less than two months ago on the case featuring the “my name is Coca and I am a cola; what’s the problem?” defense:

Looks like the trademark dispute between Trader Joe’s Co. and Gristedes Foods Inc. (previously blogged here) over the latter company’s planned use of the name “Trader John’s” in connection with a chain of grocery stores appears to have been settled.

Yes, it is a little odd that the guy in Nevada updated this item before the person blogging from just a few blocks away, but hey:  let me make it up to you.  Here’s a genuine CONFUSIO-VISION photo of the renamed store that I took a couple of weeks ago:
Not Trader John's any moreNo, really.  That’s it.

Crime doesn’t pay, and trademark infringement is hardly ever a crime, but “Grocer John’s”?  That’s got to hurt.

Ron Coleman