The International House of Pancakes and the International House of Prayer are at a crossroads. IHOPancakes is much older, and has put up with IHOPrayer stealing their acronym for a decade, but times are changing - IHOPrayer is now serving food. After a ten years of getting along, the IHOPancakes lawyers are taking the IHOPrayer to court. According to the (I presume) well-fed-on-pancakes lawyers, trouble has come their way from the church:
But the chain, which has 1,476 restaurants across the country, claims it has six registered trademarks with the IHOP acronym and that the religious group’s use of the same four-letter logo causes, according to the lawsuit, “great and irreparable injury and confuses the public.”
"Confuses" the public? I realize that some people aren't too bright (and you really shouldn't steal an acronym from a well-established business), but just how dumb does IHOPancakes think its customers are?
"Kids, look, it's IHOP! Let's go there for pancakes!"
"But, Dad, that sign doesn't say anything about pancakes-"
"Do you want to lose front seat privileges?"
"No..."
Anyway, what really brought this story out, for me, was learning a thing or two about IHOPrayer. Their project is to televise prayer twenty four hours a day, every day, on their website. You can see what they are currently up to here. (Currently, there's some very avant-garde worship music being performed. It's really repetitive, but it's probably difficult to fill up an entire day.) It reminds me of some Byzantine monasteries I've heard of that had monks praying aloud all hours of the day and night. The IHOPrayer pastor has a history of promoting ministers who end up with poor reputations, but he's stayed out of controversy himself.
IHOPrayer probably could've done better than to use an acronym already widely in use, but I still hope this can be settled without nasty court battles. The IHOPrayer keeps to itself and doesn't bother anyone, and probably doesn't deserve anyone's wrath. Then again, college gave me fond memories of eat IHOP pancakes with my wife (before we were dating), so I might side with them if they offer me some free food. I'm still a grad student, after all.
One of these is being built a block away from my apartment. It's also next to the Guitar Center and around the corner from the largest Half-Priced bookstore. I've decided I'm never moving.
3 comments:
I cannot stand IHOP's worship music. And I also am always momentarily confused when my coworkers mention that they're "definitely stopping by IHOP while in Kansas."
Go to bed, old man!
I realize that some people aren't too bright (and you really shouldn't steal an acronym from a well-established business), but just how dumb does IHOPancakes think its customers are?
Confusion in the trademark sense refers more to whether the public is going to associate one with the other. It's not likely that anyone will confuse a house of worship with a breakfast joint, but it's perfectly reasonable to think that people might mistakenly associate the two or think that one is sponsored or connected to the other. That's what they mean by "confusion."
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