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Article: Any Way You Slice It, "BRICK OVEN" Is Generic when Used To Identify Pizza.
- Article from:
- Mondaq Business Briefing
- Article date:
- September 29, 2006
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 Mondaq Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The U. S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirmed a district court granting a motion for summary judgment that the term BRICK OVEN for pizza is generic and therefore cannot be afforded trademark protection. Schwan's IP LLC v. Kraft Pizza Co., Case No. 05-3463 (8th Cir., Aug. 18, 2006) (Wollman, J.).
In March 2003, Schwan's began selling its Freschetta brand of frozen pizzas using the term BRICK OVEN, a term that Kraft also had considered but rejected using in connection with its line of frozen pizzas in early 2003. However, several months after Schwan's launch of its BRICK OVEN line of pizzas, Kraft created and marketed its Tombstone BRICK OVEN style ...