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6 June 2019Trademarks

Coffee company urges Caterpillar to ‘stop bullying’ over ‘Cat’ TM

A California-based coffee brand has announced that global construction equipment manufacturer Caterpillar is attempting to cancel one of the brand’s trademarks.

The coffee brand, Cat & Cloud, launched a change.org petition on May 23 to raise awareness of the dispute, after making the announcement in a podcast on the same day.

In its change.org petition, Cat & Cloud urged Caterpillar to “stop bullying” small enterprises. It said Caterpillar had embarked on a “concentrated effort to cancel the trademarks of several small businesses that use the word ‘Cat’ in their name”.

“Suspiciously, Caterpillar has not taken action against larger brands like Target and Dr Seuss Enterprises for their ‘Cat & Jack’ and ‘Cat in the Hat’ clothing products, respectively, seemingly because these brands are known to have excellent trademark counsel,” the petition said.

It added that the businesses allegedly targeted by Caterpillar do not produce construction equipment, compete with, or take business from Caterpillar.

The dispute dates to August 2018, when Caterpillar petitioned the US Patent and Trademark Office to cancel the coffee company’s trademark for the words ‘Cat & Cloud’. The mark is registered in class 25 for clothing including “shirts, hats, tank tops and sweatshirts”.

These items are all sold at Cat & Cloud stores alongside its coffee.

Caterpillar said the mark infringed its mark ‘CAT’, which covers a wide range of apparel as well as headgear, footwear and bags.

It said Cat & Cloud’s mark would cause a likelihood of confusion amongst the general public and dilutes the manufacturer’s existing trademarks.

WIPR has contacted Caterpillar for comment.

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Trademarks
24 August 2018   Machinery company Caterpillar has succeeded in its opposition against a trademark for ‘HyperCat’ at the UK Intellectual Property Office.