Sprinkles Sues Pink Sprinkles!
By The Cupcake Faerie on July 18th, 2011 . Filed under: Bakeries, Cupcake Ideas, News .You don’t have to be a lawyer (but I am) to enjoy this news flash: Sprinkles Cupcakes has filed a lawsuit in Federal District Court in CT against Pink Sprinkles Cupcakes. The claim? Trademark infringement. Here is the 10-page “Complaint,” the document that starts it all.
Copyright Me Cupcake Photo!
What is there to gab as part of the exclusive All Things Cupcake blog not found anywhere else? Well, as to what matters to us, Sprinkles claims in paragraph 8 that it “plans on opening stores throughout the United States and around the world, including Boston, Philadelphia, Toronto, London, and Paris.” Magnifique!
My curiosity spun me around the US Patent & Trademark Office website. “Sprinkles” produced 192 results, including “Magic Sprinkles,” “Serenity Sprinkles,” “Twisted Sprinkles,” “Garden Sprinkles,” and “Pet -,” “Kitty -,” and “Doggie Sprinkes.” In fact, in 2002, before there was “Sprinkles” of Beverly Hills, there was “Sprinkles of Palm Beach” – that is, until Sprinkles bought the assignment for that trademark. (Don’t tell Sprinkles, but there is currently a “Sprinkles Ice Cream” in Palm Beach…)
Stay tuned as we track the Answer to the Complaint, due in from Pink Sprinkles within just a few days.
Oh, and just to be on the safe side…I’m not publishing photographs of cupcakes from either Sprinkles or Pink Sprinkles – here is one of my own!
July 19th, 2011 at 10:45 am
Very interesting indeed. I have skimmed the complaint and I am curious on how this will turn out. I’ll be staying tuned in.
July 19th, 2011 at 3:10 pm
I don’t care for Sprinkles or Candace Nelson. How can she make everyone stop using the word sprinkles? That’s like saying only one person can use cupcake or pie.
July 19th, 2011 at 3:23 pm
All this serves to do is make the owner of Sprinkles look very self serving and probably will back fire in the end and cause Pink Sprinkles to have more business than she ever imagined…free publicity! I mean really…
July 19th, 2011 at 8:27 pm
I have a small cupcake business on Long Island. Sprinkles lawers contacted me also because I had the word sprinkles in my business name. They explained that she had trademarked the word sprinkles and nobody can use it in association with any baking business. They forced me to change my business name and gave me 14 days to do so. Needless to say….I don’t care for the Sprinkles company either.
July 20th, 2011 at 1:29 pm
I agree with Kirsten. I mean just because someone uses the word sprinkles does not mean they are trying to associate themselves with Candace’s company. Who doesn’t love sprinkles?!!? They are one of my favorite things in the whole world! I have never been to a “Sprinkles Cupcakes” shop. This ensures that I never will. I also agree with Sheri that it could seriously backfire. And I sincerely hope that it does.