After Over Two Decades Of Non-Enforcement, Produce Company Invokes Trademark On ‘Broccolini’
from the now? dept
I think it best to start this post off with an admission: I had no idea that “broccolini” was not the name of an actual vegetable, but rather a trademarked brand name. I can’t see your faces, obviously, but I imagine some sizable percentage of them also have a look of mild surprise on them.
Well, it’s true. “Broccolini” is a registered trademark of Fresh Del Monte Produce, distributed by its subsidiary, Mann Packing. And if you’re wondering how it’s possible that the term is out there in grocery stores and restaurants all over the place without the trademark symbol appended next to it, that’s because for 25 years FDMP has declined to enforce the mark. I’ve dug around a bit and I cannot come up with examples of lawsuits or C&D notices being sent out regarding this trademark. That, generally speaking, is how marks lose their distinctive nature and become generic.
Well, FDMP wants to unring that bell, it seems. The company has put out all kinds of press releases and social media campaigns to educate the public about its trademark, the history of the hybrid plant, and to remind everyone that it has a trademark it may choose to enforce.
“The term Broccolini is more than just a name to us—it’s a symbol of our company’s commitment to quality and innovation,” says Melissa Mackay, Vice President of Marketing, Fresh Del Monte Produce. “We helped develop Broccolini baby broccoli more than a quarter of a century ago as a broccoli and Chinese kale hybrid from an exclusive seed that produces long, tender, and edible stems you simply can’t get anywhere else.”
According to a press release, while some restaurants may advertise that they’re selling broccolini, there is little evidence they are serving actual Broccolini®—the trademark for that proprietary type of baby broccoli created over 25 years ago by Sakata Seed Company.
For the time being, the company has said this is an educational campaign only. But it sure also feels like it is trying to lay the groundwork for enforcement somewhere down the line. Broccolini has reportedly seen an uptick in popularity in grocery stores and restaurants in recent years and you can almost smell the executives at FDMP wanting to control that market more. And the company is hinting as much in its public statements.
“While this campaign is intended as an educational opportunity to remind the foodservice industry that our product name cannot legally be used generically, we are serious about protecting our trademark,” explains Mackay. “It’s important for consumers to understand the Broccolini difference and know that the name matters. If restaurant menus are not accurately referring to the product by name, it can be misleading to customers who expect a certain level of flavor and quality.”
Serious about protecting your trademark? Why start now?
Joking aside, the point is that after all these years of not enforcing the mark, I would think it would be trivially easy for a defendant at trial to conduct polling of the public asking them if they have any idea, as I didn’t, that “broccolini” is a trademark and not the generic name of a vegetable. Whether FDMP actually wants to try to sue anyone so that we can find out if I’m right remains to be seen.
Filed Under: broccolini, generic, trademark
Companies: del monte, mann packing
Comments on “After Over Two Decades Of Non-Enforcement, Produce Company Invokes Trademark On ‘Broccolini’”
In other news, Bayer AG has declared its intent to reclaim the trademark on Aspirin™.
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Well, Trump has unilaterally taken over Nazi ideology, so it seems only fair to hand back the rights taken from Bayer for its WWII activities.
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Yet they don’t seem interested in their other trademark they lost to genericide, ‘heroin’. I wonder why…?
Are they trying for some sort of “Streisand Effect” by trademarking something most people have never heard of?
It won’t work. People STILL won’t eat that shit.
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The fact that some people don’t like apples doesn’t make them shit. FYI, ‘broccolini’ is known as Tenderstem broccoli or longstem broccoli here in the UK, and it’s actually delicious, unlike kale, one of its parents.
This is like Sakata not enforcing its own trademark on the term ‘tenderstem broccoli’ (which is the same thing as broccolini), then getting all butthurt once everybody’s using. Nevertheless, to save trouble down the line, I call all such hybrids ‘longstem broccoli’.
And here, I thought ‘broccolini’ was a term of art for another form of vegetable matter entirely, one usually smoked rather than eaten.
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I had assumed it was just a variant to broccoli, with longer stalks.
So broccolini is just a broccoli/chinese broccoli cross. ehh only been eating it for 20 years.
Two Decades? Why does that sound familiar…
Oh yeah, it’s the length of a patent term…
So in short, what probably happened is their patent term on the hybrid ran out, so they’re turning to trademark to keep their artificial monopoly.
Except it’s “Broccolini” with the capital B that’s claimed to be the trademark. Isn’t it literally just the Italian diminutive form of “broccoli”, though, like spaghetti and spaghettini?
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Spelling Lego or Hoover without an initial capital letter doesn’t make them not trademarks, fool.
I’m a chef who does mostly catering, and I use broccolini a lot. Most of the people I work with have no idea it’s a brand name.
Also affects apples
A lot of varieties of apples have trademarked names, too. For example, Cosmic Crisp is the trademarked name for something that non-licensed users apparently ought to be calling “WA 38”. Although there’s no way for anyone to really know that: the name “WA 38” does not appear on store signage or fruit labels, and the labels don’t even have a trademark symbol.
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Correction: they do. The “R” inside the circle is just so absurdly small that it can barely be seen without a magnifying glass, let alone identified. Security “micro-printing” is easier to read.
So, uh, if one is actually selling or serving Broccolini, Del Monte doesn’t want their product identified? Seems stupid.
2 decades of infringement on their IP & they survived….
Could this mean that IP isn’t that important?!?
Do you murder employees that try to unionize AND their families?
Do you run ACTUAL slave farms in South America, working people physically to death by threatening to murder their children?
The man from del monte he say yes.
Who cares about this “broccolini” stuff? I’m still looking for the Coconut of Quendor I saw an adventurer pass through the maze of twisty little passages, all alike with a couple of days ago.