Is Dr. Pepper Pulling (Hawaiian) Punches in Enforcement Efforts?

On a recent shopping trip, I couldn’t help but notice some interesting brand extensions inside and outside the stores.

My encounter inside involved Burt’s Bees . The brand encompasses a wide variety of lip balms, lotions, cosmetics, and personal body care items. (pets, too). Yet I discovered a new addition to the lineup: Burt’s Bees protein shake powder.

While most cosmetics and lip balm companies don’t make a jump into the nutrition field (a ChapStick shake just doesn’t sound appetizing), Burt’s Bees’ extension seems to make sense. In my mind, I’ve always associated it with an image of healthy, natural products, and nutrition products seem to fit that image.

Outside, I ran into a similar situation in the lawn and garden center: a blast from childhood past:

This seemed a bit further afield than Burt’s Bees. Had my childhood sugary “fruit” drink really expanded into live flowers? After all, the company does sell Hawaiian Punch lip balm.

However, the answer seems to be no. The flowers are a sold by Canadian company Fernlea Flowers. The company has even registered the mark with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, without an opposition from Dr. Pepper/Seven Up (the owner of rights in the HAWAIIAN PUNCH mark).

Are flowers sufficiently related to fruit juice and lip balm such that Dr. Pepper should have objected to the use of HAWAIIAN PUNCH for flowers? Generally speaking, I’d say the goods are highly unrelated. Yet the marks are identical, the HAWAIIAN PUNCH mark has been licensed for other non-food goods, and the HAWAIIAN PUNCH mark is arguably famous. Plus, the mark could have been licensed because the flowers are the colors of various flavors of Hawaiian Punch drinks. Are these factors enough to create a likelihood of confusion?

If there isn’t a likelihood of confusion, is there a claim for dilution? This seems more plausible, but would extending protection of HAWAIIAN PUNCH to live plants in this instance effectively give the owner a right in gross to the phrase HAWAIIAN PUNCH? Is that okay for marks that can establish that they are famous? What do you think, was this an enforcement punch worth pulling?

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