Dec. 23 – Chicago Daily Law Bulletin
Professor William T. McGrath authored column
I spent a week this past summer in Burlington, Vt., and environs. Vermont is a state of rugged individualists. They drive a lot of Subarus and like hiking in the mountains. They like their beer brewed locally (e.g. Magic Hat, Rock Art breweries). And they really like their vegetables, cheese and meat home grown and artisanal. The restaurants don’t just tell you that your dinner is locally grown, they tell you which little farm down the road it came from.
This was all very important background information to help me understand the latest cause célèbre in the trademark world. It involved a rugged Vermont individualist named Bo Muller-Moore. Bo has a one-man, T-shirt operation in Montpelier. His biggest seller is a T-shirt that simply says “Eat More Kale.” He hand-screens the shirts in a workshop above his garage and sells them at farmers markets and on his website at eatmorekale.com. He said some friends asked him to make shirts with this phrase at least 10 years ago and he’s been selling them ever since. Bo said the message is about eating healthier, eating locally produced food and supporting small business. The message is as pure as Vermont maple syrup.