A Minnesota hamburger restaurant, Lion’s Tap, filed suit in federal court on Friday against McDonald’s alleging trademark infringement of its slogan “Who’s Your Patty?”. Regardless of the merits of the claim, Lion’s Tap’s case may be thrown out on a technicality: lack of standing to sue in federal court.
One of the benefits of a federally registered trademark is that you are automatically able to bring a trademark infringement claim in federal court. Without federal registration, the only way to federal court is the old-fashioned way through diversity of citizenship and amount in controversy.
A quick check of the USPTO’s website reveals that Lion’s Tap submitted an application for federal registration just 3 days before filing its claim: lesson learned that federal trademark registration has some really great benefits, just not in time for this law suit against the hamburger giant.
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