Chobani yogurt sued for trademark infringement

Greek Yogurt company Chobani is making headlines again, as an author has accused the company of stealing an idea from his book to use as part of their marketing campaign. 

The Chobani marketing campaign featuring the slogan "How Matters," has come under fire from the author of the book "How: Why How We Do Anything Means Everything." The author of the book, business consultant Dov Seidman is claiming that Chobani infringed on his trademarked concept, according to an article in Fortune. 

"We are confident that our use of 'How Matters' does not violate any legal rights of Mr. Seidman, and accurately portrays who we are and what we do," Chobani said in a statement. 

Seidman's lawsuit claims that Chobani's "How Matters" campaign is an infringement of his book, and that Seidman owns the trademark for "word and mark HOW." 

According to New York Daily News, Chobani claims the similarities between their campaign and Seidman's book are a coincidence, but the lawsuit states that Chobani sent Seidman a Twitter message about "How," and then proceeded to use the concept in their campaign.

However, Chobani argues that their slogan "How Matters" is different from the "How" concept trademarked by Seidman and that similarities between the two are coincidental. Whether or not Seidman's trademark infringement claims will hold up in court remains to be seen. 

This is not the first time Chobani has been accused of stealing someone else's intellectual property, as we discussed in April, the founder of the company was alleged by his ex-wife to have bragged about bribing a Fage yogurt employee to obtain the company's recipe.

Intellectual property is valuable and companies should protect it. Consult a Phoenix business attorney to learn how copyright issues may be affecting your business. 

Categorised in: Intellectual Property Law

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