Burger King 1950's

One of the most important aspects of any business is its name. Our laws provide for a business to seek protection for its property. Congress established the trademark protections for businesses in the Trademark Act of 1881. It established a trademark law that applied to the interstate commerce clause in the Constitution (Busse, 2011). The trademark is considered one of the founding distinctions a company can own under our intellectual property laws. For consideration in this essay, we will discuss a very interesting court case that took place in the 1960’s. Back in the 1950’s, there were two restaurants legally established each with the name “Burger King.” In this case, two businesses were contending for the right to exclusively use

In Mattoon IL Gene and Betty Hoots had an ice cream business, Frigid Queen, and decided to expand their business by offering a larger menu (Jermaine, 2003). It occurred to them to name the new business something with the word king in it because their first business was Frigid Queen. Since the dominant item on their new menu was burgers, they settled on the name Burger King. Wanting to become legal, the hoots sought a trademark from the state of Illinois for their restaurant Burger King. A trademark was granted by Illinois and their business was now legally theirs.

Also, in the 1950’s a separate second business, Burger King of Florida (Inc.) was established. They choose to seek a trademark for their name under the Federal Trade Mark Act. Both businesses were growing but Burger King of Florida of Florida grew faster. When they began to add locations in Illinois to locations near Mattoon the Hoots decided to bring suit against Burger King of Florida. Obviously with both having valid trademarks how could the courts make a binding

Since the Hoots had filed for trademark protection in the state of Illinois before the national franchise trademark sought to register, they had a valid point. Under the state law, the Hoots did hold a valid trademark to use within a specific territory. It was ruled that a federal trademark has authority across all states, including Illinois. Eventually, it was decided that the Hoots were able to use the name within a court directed, reasonable territorial boundary of twenty miles around the existing restaurant. However, the national franchise was also able to continue to operate stores in Illinois outside the established twenty-mile business area (Burger King Vs Hoots,