Seriously, I don’t get the Cronuts craze. I mean, I like croissants and I like donuts but I don’t love either…so my reaction is “Meh”. But my personal feelings aside, there are people who are willing to stand on long lines, deal with purchase restrictions and even health department issues to get their Cronut fix. Expectedly, Mr. Ansel, owner of Cronut tried to protect this very valuable name via trademark. Though he is not claiming exclusive rights to the product, Mr. Ansel does not want anyone else using the Cronut name.* However, because of a clerical error at the U.S. Patent office, Mr. Ansel is now facing unanticipated challenges to his claim of exclusive ownership. Using this story as a cautionary tale, Jess Collen explores the limits of trademark (“it protects the owner against misrepresenation but still permits others to get creative with the general concept.”)
* (It would be extremely it is extremely difficult to get a patent for his recipe and even if he has a “trade secret” it would not prevent others from reverse-engineering a similar product).
