A Truer Paragraph Never Written

Marc Stein drops some truth:

It's too early for full-fledged disappointments. The only true disappointment I've seen in Vegas so far was the unspeakable sight of a young man bringing a bag from McDonald's into an In-N-Out Burger on Tuesday afternoon, something I've never witnessed in 25 years as an In-N-Out zealot. He ate his McDonalds while his dining companion enjoyed the most sumptuous burger in the history of fast food. It was the epitome of sacrilege.

Strange Food Related Lawsuit of the Day Involving a Lennon

(hat tip Defamer)

First up, who knew Julian Lennon was a restauranteur?

Second up, suing like this isn't very christian of the very Christian In-N-Out Corporation.

Third up, I'm no legal expert, but it seems like suing for copyright infringement on an unoffical off menu item seems like a tough case to win.

Sure, everybody who goes to In-N-Out (and in this area that's almost everybody) knows there are lots of 'off menu' specialty orders that you can place (a partial list here), but I don't think that helps In-N-Out in this case. Seems to me you actually have to officially market something to claim a trademark or copyright on a phrase. I could be wrong here, and maybe this open secret, secret menu constitutes registered trademarks, and looking at the offical site, they do show the "R" in a circle after Animal, 3x3, 4x4, and Protein, so clearly they are claiming those as trademarks for food related products.

Still seems like they've hired some overzealous attorneys who have gotten a bit registered trademark and sue-happy.

Good for Julian Lennon for standing up to them and not altering the menu at Blowfish Sushi.

All this won't change the fact that In-N-Out is indeed what a hamburger is all about (maybe on my pilgrimage to the Kwik-E-Mart, I'll swing by the In-N-Out on Venice Blvd. about a mile east).


UPDATE: Noticed Tammy Bruce is also on this case. Must be a slow news day, not like anything is going on right now.