Infignos Media - Northport bakery told to stop making Tide-themed treats

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Northport bakery told to stop making Tide-themed treats

Thursday, August 23, 2012

A sticky situation between the University of Alabama and a local bakery has apparently been smoothed over.

A Northport bakery had been told they couldn't sell cookies or cakes with a logo that resembles the University of Alabama’s.

Houndstooth, elephants, the color crimson, these are all things that remind many of the University of Alabama. Many images are protected by copyrights.

But one collegiate licensing company that has a contract with UA recently said cake frosting the script letter "A" is also off limits.

Mary's Cakes and Pastries was served a cease and desist letter for using the script "A" design.

Suzannah Weeks works for an organization on campus and she said she has been ordering the collegiate cookies in question for about a year.

“The cookies are a huge hit. I mean they're delicious and they're cute and they're decorative so they're really perfect to kind of complement anything that we put out for a gameday because they add to the décor,” Weeks said.

The bakery was hired by the university in at least two circumstances to provide products that resembled things associated with UA.

The bakery is not unfamiliar with licensing laws. In fact there is a sign posted inside of a specific list of figures that they do have the licensing rights for that they can put on their products.

A licensing professor at Stamford, Woodrow Hartzog, said this case depends on what the university says their trademark covers and if it could be a brand of the university.

"What really matters is whether consumers will be confused. That's really ultimately the test that trademark infringement hinges upon," Hartzog added.

In a blog post titled The Scarlet Letter that's apparently written by Mary of Mary’s Cakes and Pastries, the author writes, "So we'll be adding the 'Script A' and 'Big Al,' along with the words 'Roll Tide,' 'Bama,' 'Alabama,' 'Rammer Jammer' and any other symbol or mark of the University of Alabama to the copyrighted symbols we are not allowed to create in icing on cakes and cookies."

The University of Alabama released a statement saying they have apologized for the letter sent to the bakery's owner and the letter is not consistent with the protocol they normally follow for local vendors on trademark issues. They also say they have assured the bakery's owner they will work with her to allow her to again make pastries that bear the university's mark.

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Keywords: Northport, Alabama, bakery, University of Alabama, copyrights, Mary's cakes and Pastries,

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