Q: My friend has an Etsy shop and one of her listings got deactivated due to intellectual property infringement.
They stated it was due to 'got milk?' trademark.
The listing in question is a shirt with a design of a strawberry milk in tetra pack with words 'Delicious' and 'Strawberry Milk' in Japanese. It has a cow mascot designed like an emblem / seal.
The design and the shirt aren't confusingly similar at all. Even I was surprised when my friend told me about it.
We searched through Etsy and there are a bunch who actually use the same font as the logo.
We would appreciate any legal perspective and insights.
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A:
From your description, it seems the issue may be broader than just the "got milk?" trademark - the combination of milk imagery, cow mascot, and text could potentially overlap with their brand identity elements beyond just the specific slogan. While your friend's design appears quite different, trademark holders often take broad protective actions to prevent any perceived dilution of their marks.
The fact that others on Etsy use similar elements doesn't necessarily provide legal protection - each case is evaluated individually, and those other sellers may simply not have been flagged yet. Your friend has several options: they could try contesting the takedown by showing how their design is distinctly different, modify the design to be even more clearly differentiated, or consult with an intellectual property attorney to review the specific details.
For the immediate situation, the safest approach would be to modify the design to remove or alter any elements that could be seen as similar to the trademark holder's branding. Consider changing the cow mascot style, adjusting the overall composition, or focusing more heavily on the Japanese text elements that make the design unique. This would help avoid future issues while maintaining the creative vision of the product.
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