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April 29, 2004

PEANUT BUTTER.... TRADEMARK.... mmm..... mmmm.....

For the past 40 years, Joan Crosby Tibbetts (her website is here -- she owns the www.skippy.com website) has waged a one-woman campaign against the makers of Skippy peanut butter (unilever owns the www.peanutbutter.com website), claiming the name was stolen from her father's popular Depression-era comic strip.  Tibbetts' legal battle ended in early April, 2004 when the U.S. Supreme Court (petition here and denial here) refused to hear her suit against Unilever, the parent company of the division that makes Skippy peanut butter.

"This case involves a very important principle . . . 'Thou shalt not steal,' " Tibbetts said Monday. "If this case is allowed to disappear . . . who has won? These big corporations that believe they can just wear others down."

Why have the courts turned a deaf ear to Ms. Tibbetts? It may be because she settled in 1978 with Bestfoods (previous owner of the mark) for $25,000.  Tibbetts claims, however, that this settlement required Bestfoods to use the original Skippy character in its marketing, which never occurred.  

Now that the Supreme Court has refused to hear Ms. Tibbetts case, what now?  Well -- Unilever filed a motion for sanctions, claiming that Ms. Tibbetts' actions were without merit.  In fact, U.S. District Judge James C. Cacheris said the lawsuit Tibbetts filed in 2002 seeking cancellation of Unilever's Skippy trademark was frivolous and never should have been filed. 

Posted by Douglas Sorocco at 01:54 PM.
Permalink: PEANUT BUTTER.... TRADEMARK.... mmm..... mmmm.....
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