A Vermont entrepreneur says he’s going to battle Chick-fil-A in court over the right to continue using the slogan “eat more kale” in his business, which the fast food chain claims is too similar to their trademarked (and purposefully misspelled) slogan “eat mor chikn.”
In October, Chick-fil-A sent Bo Muller-Moore a sternly-worded letter, which said that his slogan "is likely to cause confusion of the public and dilutes the distinctiveness of Chick-fil-A's intellectual property and diminishes its value," the AP reports. The letter requested that he turn over his website, eatmorekale.com, and listed 30 examples of attempts by other individuals or organizations to use an “eat more ___” phrase that Chick-fil-A has had withdrawn. Muller-Moore received similar letters from Chick-fil-A five years ago, but after a response from pro bono lawyers on his behalf, the letters stopped and he assumed he was in the clear, until now.
Muller-Moore’s business grew out of a favor he did for a kale-growing friend of his who put in a special order for three T-shirts with the phrase on them. After that, requests started rolling in, and Muller-Moore expanded his business, silkscreening “eat more kale” on T-shirts and sweatshirts and printing it on bumper stickers.
The University of New Hampshire School of Law's Intellectual Property and Transaction Clinic, along with Montpelier lawyer Daniel Richardson will be representing Muller-Moore in his fight to continue using the phrase. On his website, he says the slogan is all about “supporting small business,” “eating locally” and “supporting local farmers,” a goal unlikely to be confused with selling fast-food chicken.
