MANHATTAN—U.S. District Court Judge Lewis A. Kaplan yesterday signed off on a Consent Judgment in Ben & Jerry’s v Rodax Distributors, the lawsuit filed by the ice cream maker in September of last year alleging trademark infringement by Rodax and Caballero Video for their sweet-toothed video line that included such mouth-watering titles as Coconut 7 Lay-Her Bar, Late Night Snatch and Boston Cream Thigh. We thought they were funny and clever, but Ben and Jerry’s was not amused.
Neither was the judge, who issued an order shortly after the lawsuit was filed directing Caballero to “stop selling and advertising titles with names similar to those of the company and its ice cream flavors,” as AVN reported at the time.
For some reason, the case has since lingered for almost a year, with a gap in court filings of about 8 months, from early December of last year to yesterday, during which time the parties were supposedly preparing for a trial that never took place. Instead, Caballero agreed to the provisions of the consent judgment, which was signed by all of the parties on July 25.
The judgment outlines restrictions imposed on Caballero and Rodex now and into the future regarding the use of any Ben & Jerry’s marks or those associated with any of their other products, including Vermont’s Finest, Everything But The… and American Dream.
Just to make sure, though, the judgment also lists in all caps titles the defendants are specifically “restrained and enjoined” from ever using again, including “BEN & CHERRY'S, HAIRY GARCIA, EVERYTHING BUT THE BUTT, LATE NIGHT SNATCH, AMERICONE CREAM, NEW YORK SUPER FAT & CHUNKY, BOSTON CREAM THIGH, COCONUT 7 LAY-HER BAR, CHOCOLATE FUDGE BABES, PEANUT BUTTER D-CUPS [and] BANANA CLIT.”
Safe to say this was not your everyday consent judgment.
