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And Finally Artist News Beef Of The Week Brands & Merch Legal
CMU Beef Of The Week #246: Hall & Oates v Haulin Oats
By Andy Malt | Published on Friday 6 March 2015
‘Haulin oats’, according to Urban Dictionary circa 2010, is a slang term to mean “running really fast”. It is also similar in sound to the stage name of Daryl Hall and John Oates. I’m certainly not the first person to note this. However, I don’t think anyone has ever laboured the point quite as much as Hall & Oates do themselves in a new lawsuit against Early Bird Foods & Co.
Dazzer and The J Man’s big problem is that Early Bird is selling a cereal consisting of rolled oats and maple syrup called, you guessed it, Haulin Oats. Though their issue isn’t that – despite oats being an incredibly cheap foodstuff – the company is selling their product at $27 for three 230g bags. No, it’s that whole sounding like their stage name thing.
The “confusingly similar” cereal name, says the lawsuit, is “an obvious play on plaintiff’s well-known Hall & Oates mark, and was selected by the defendant in an effort to trade off the fame and notoriety associated with the artists and plaintiff’s well-known marks.
“Now wait a minute”, you might be thinking at this point. “How can they be so sure that a plucky young entrepreneur running a small cereal company has ever even heard of two old men who had a few hits 30 years ago?”
Well, that may indeed have been a valid argument. However, when asked for a statement by Rolling Stone, Early Bird owner Nekisia Davis simply responded, “Say it isn’t so”, which would suggest she is at least aware of the duo and their 1983 single of the same name. Unless we’re experiencing an extraordinary string of coincidences here.
“Now wait a minute”, you may think again, because you’ve got your special thinking hat on. “Wouldn’t Hall & Oates have to demonstrate that consumers were actually confused by the existence of both band and cereal?”
Well, yes, they might. And it does seem unlikely that anyone is going to accidentally buy a breakfast cereal thinking they’ve got tickets to see Hall & Oates sing a few of their songs. Even at $107 for a pack of twelve. But the duo have thought of that, see?
The lawsuit goes on to say that people trying to trade off their name in various ways, including connecting the fact that Oates and oats sound quite similar, is not an uncommon occurrence (they even did it on their debut album, ‘Whole Oats’), and has happened many times over the years. And because of that, back in 2012, the duo’s company Whole Oats Enterprises registered the Haulin Oats trademark internationally for food delivery and, more importantly, oatmeal products.
Now, a food delivery company called Haulin Oats was apparently once suggested by comedian Zach Galifianakis in an interview with Jimmy Kimmel. But Galifianakis isn’t on trial here. That’s just a fun bit of trivia for you all. But Whole Oats Enterprises does licence the name out to a company that sells Haulin Oats branded cereals already, so now there’s double confusion.
“Early Bird Foods’ use of the mark on their own products is likely to confuse consumers and lead them to believe that such products are affiliated with or approved by Hall & Oates, which is not the case”, said the duo’s management in a statement. “Prior attempts to discuss this matter with Early Bird Foods were unsuccessful and Whole Oats was left with no other choice but to file suit in order to protect its valuable marks and goodwill”.
To be fair, if Early Bird only communicates using Hall & Oates song titles, I can see how those negotiations would have become difficult. A cease-and-desist letter was sent to the company back in April 2014 and received no official response following indications that the company had no intention of taking its product off sale. This letter, of course, could also be what led Davis to become so familiar with the pair’s oeuvre.
Anyway, Messrs Oates and Hall are now suing for trademark infringement, copyright infringement and unfair competition. They want Early Bird to jolly well stop selling its flippin cereal, destroy any materials bearing the Haulin Oats name, pay damages that reflect the awful pain the duo have been put through, pay the musicians’ legal fees, and any other damages the court reckons they might be due.
Who knew healthy eating could be such a troublesome business? Still, this whole suing over a commonly used slang term that sounds a bit like your band name seems like fun. And it doesn’t have to end here. A quick Google search pulls up some sort of temporary community at the 2012 Bonnaroo festival, a family blogging about living in a caravan, and even another band all utilising (deliberately or otherwise) the Haulin Oats slang-band-pun device. Sue them all, I say.
