Earlier this year it was hard to miss certain items on the Momofuku Milk Bar menu not only amended with an asterisk for their nut content, but a TM symbol lest some nut try to knock them off. As Gothamist learned back in May the trademarks for these recipes, including Crack Pie and Cereal Milk are in process, so what will the courts make of Sara Snacker's Fancy Food Show debut?
On Sunday we stumbled upon the Chipn'etzel, quite possibly "the original Potato Chip & Pretzel Cookie." Although we're pretty sure Christina Tosi and David Chang would disagree with that statement.
Even if the Chipn'etzel lacks coffee grounds, there's still the matter of legal grounds. Sara offers custom mix-ins which cover quite a few Momofuku cookie ingredients from cereal to marshmallows to toffee chips, which ultimately raises a great legal question: If a customer requests a combination of ingredients that infringes on a trademarked recipe, can a bakery be stopped from complying?
When we asked her if she was familiar with the Momofuku creations she told us no, but we weren't the first at the show to ask and make the comparison.
The cookies are currently baked in New Jersey but available for home delivery in Manhattan if you want to make the comparison for yourself. And if you're wondering what kind of mind could come up with such an original idea, before she invented the Chipn'etzel, Sara Snacker invented this.
Related:
New trademarks at Momofuku Milk Bar & Bakery? (3/23/09)
Call it the Fancy Food Truck Show: Augustin's Waffles, Van Leeuwen Ice Cream, Wafels & Dinges and Twitter take over. (6/29/09)
To hell with Momofuku, the cookie is good but how dare they trademark what is essentially just a cookie with certain items mixed in? Are they that arrogant to think they invented something new & special, or are they that greedy? I've been buying 1 a week from them but if they sue these folks I'll never set foot in their businesses ever again.
Posted by: rjnyc | July 02, 2009 at 12:51 PM
You asked: "If a customer requests a combination of ingredients that infringes on a trademarked recipe, can a bakery be stopped from complying?"
Answer: No, the bakery cannot be stopped from complying, and is free to make the cookie as they please. While the term "Compost Cookie" is trademarked, the recipe for the cookie cannot be trademarked, copyright or patented--ever. So as long as the bakery doesn't call it's cookie a "Compost Cookie", Momofuku has no legal recourse.
Posted by: Trademark Lawyer | July 02, 2009 at 01:11 PM
Well if that's the case, how can they TM something called "Cereal Milk"? And the biggest issue here then would be who came up with "the original potato chip and pretzel cookie" first?
Posted by: TLV | July 02, 2009 at 01:52 PM
this is nonsense, i guess there should only one bakery making brownies, like they didnt just copy this cookie idea from chocolate covered pretzels and chips, and didnt sam mason do the whole cereal milk thing like 5 years ago.........
Posted by: tin | July 07, 2009 at 09:49 AM