Post Foods, a cereal company, is suing OK Go for the right to continue using the group’s name for an assortment of instant cereal cups.
According to the company’s statement to the Minnesota federal court via Billboard, the group has been threatening to sue for several months, and Post Foods will be “unfairly forced to continue investing in its new OK GO! the brand, being under constant threat of unreasonable future litigation by the defendants.”
Currently, the company is seeking a declarative judgment that they have done nothing wrong, referring to their application for registration of the OK Go trademark! which was allegedly approved in 2022.
According to Post Foods, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office did not consider that the name of the cereal line could cause confusion with the name of the OK Go group.
In a statement to Billboard, OK Go said they were caught off guard by the lawsuit. “A large corporation decided to steal the name of our group in order to sell disposable plastic cups with sugar to children. It was, to put it mildly, an unpleasant surprise.
“But then they sue the United States about it? Presumably the idea is that they can just bully us because of our own name, since they have much more money to spend on lawyers? I think it often happens, but I hope we will be an exception.”
According to the lawsuit, an OK Go lawyer sent a letter to Post Foods in September 2022 to stop illegal actions, claiming that the new company name would “tell consumers” that the group supports the products of the grain giant.
In the letter, the group claimed that their past collaboration with Sony, Mercedes Benz, Google and others has led consumers to associate the OK Go name with consumer goods in various industries.
Of particular note is OK Go’s previous collaboration with Post Foods in a series of promotional videos for A Honey Bunches Of Oats in 2011.
Shortly after, the company’s lawyer responded to the lawsuit, stating: “Given the time that has elapsed since this limited collaboration more than a decade ago, the very small number of views indicated in the YouTube videos you referred to, and the overall consumption of a fairly short period of public attention, this will also have absolutely no effect on perception the consumer of the Post OK GO sign! It is used with cereals or snacks based on them, and this will not lead to any erroneous association with OK Go.”
Post Foods claims that it then allegedly offered to pay OK Go as part of a “good faith effort” for a “branding/co-marketing collaboration agreement,” but the group rejected the offer without providing a counteroffer and made a “clear threat.” possible legal proceedings”.
After the lawsuit, They Might Be Giants also supported the group with a Facebook post that said, “Post is suing our OK Go buddies to assign the OK Go name to their product. Maybe you think it’s wrong, or maybe you’re thinking of selling Nike’s own brand of microwave popcorn. In any case, it would be nice to shame the Post flakes for this terrible and unfortunate act.”
