Subway Chain Says You Can't Use the Word "Footlong"

She certainly looks worse in shorts than she usually does. She wasn't the one elected, but I think she still has a duty to display some taste and decorum in public, and would have looked a lot less frumpy in a nice summer skirt.

http://noxedgereviews.org/

And can we please stop using a plastic bag for every order, regardless of whether it's dine-in or take-out.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Just-say-NO-to-Subway-sandwich-bags/145641622116084

IBM owns the word "Think" but when I use that word

I surely do not "Think" of IBM.

Hi Guise, I don't what is it.but it's looking very delicious for eat.I want to eat it. Tell me where from can I eat this...

Maxx Shredder

I love that there's a Subway office barnacle with their head Footlong Up Their Ass(R) enough to convince themselves that their company is doing this to "benefit" mom and pop businesses. Ten bucks says he's blowing satan for 60k annual, too.

How about using the term "big dicker"? Sure would sell a lot of sandwiches in my nabe - lol.

Maybe Subway can start actually putting a normal amount of food on their sandwiches and then they can start bitching. A "footlong" at Subway is a whole lotta bread with a few measley pieces of whatever you ordered and about 3 pickles.

Subway is so lame. I can't believe people eat at this place. I'd rather have a snicker bar and a cup of coffee..

sounds like a fast track to the crapper to me.

Good morning!

Subway tried to trademark olives on sandwiches in the 90's, I don't remember how that one worked out.

In other words, this isn't new behaviour from them.

Compelling reason to switch to metric. Where is Jared? I hear he is hidden because he's fat again. I think the 5 dollar campaign did him in.

Now that Subway has claimed the foot, we have no choice but to switch to the metric system. They can't trademark "footlong" and "meterlong" at the same time!

Here is another example of big business trying to know over the little guy. This small hotdog joint has been an icon in this little Florida town for almost 50 years. It's had it's ups and downs. Once Mr. Hensley took over the joint it has rebounded to a become a pillar business in the community. Coney Island is a huge supporter of the community, looking to give back in anyway possible. When was the last time Subway sponsored a car wash for the local little league team or had a fundraiser for the local community? We should stand up and applaud business owners like Blair, and wish for more like him.

Will they sue me if I refer to my penis as the "A train"?

express?

express? man, just like a guy to wanna hurry-up and finish quick.

Time is money baby. ;D

HA!

well just remember slow and steady wins the race and leads to a big payoff in the end :)

thanks baby, I'm all about winning. :D

polo tried this with polo. ralph sued the mag "polo".

http://www.allbusiness.com/legal/trial-procedure-judges/6137252-1.html

Ass for Subway. If this is part of a pr ploy I hope it means we are done with Jared.

They have only applied for the trademark. It hasn't been approved yet. So as of now, there's nothing they can do to any shop because they don't have a trademark. Tell them to go fly a kite.

A trademark that is unregistered can still be valid. The whole thing gets complicated (which is why there are IP attorneys) but the bottom line is that use in commerce is what creates protection. Just as with copyright, registration shouldn't be essential.

The problem is that "footlong" is too generic a term to be afforded protection unless it can be registered, and I'm not convinced that it can be. Subway seems to concur since they wouldn't have gone through the trouble of the application process unless they thought it was necessary. There's also the matter of prior use by other companies long before Subway started using the term.

Subway Twitter-

http://twitter.com/subwayfreshbuzz

Facebook page-

http://www.facebook.com/Subway365

Subway's C&D is ridiculous. First and foremost, the term "footlong" is probably generic when applied to sandwiches and hot dogs that are a foot long. Subway might theoretically be able to obtain some rights in the phrase as applied to sandwiches which are not a foot long, but no court is going to enforce those rights against a restaurant that is making generic use by calling its 12" sandwiches "footlong". The fact that the term has been used by thousands upon thousands of third parties further weakens any claim Subway might have.

I guess their nasty food and that HORRID yeastie stench I am forced to smell on the way to work every morning wasn't enough to keep me away...

By the way, the linked article also says this:

Turns out, Subway has already recanted the letter.

It was a "clerical error," Kevin Kane, a Subway spokesman, told me. Using "footlong" for hot dogs is no problem -- the company is only trying to trademark the term for sandwiches, Kane said.

(Emphasis added.)

Ha! Turns out "Kevin Kane" is the same jackhole whose "clerical error" dumped a thousand pounds of shit on Wall St. the other day.

So Subway has decided to become the "Paris Hilton" of the fast food world. What a bunch of crap. Businesses have been using "footlong" for decades. All it makes me want to do is eat there less........ What is less than never eating there?

Don't you like processed meat?

Paris likes raw meat.

instead of foot-long the could just say "the length of inoyourider's penis"

sure, if you want a tiny sub.

It's a mouthful of tasty tubesteak.

Such a graceful comment. You disgust (beat) me (to it).

I guess "footlong" rolls off the tongue better than "a pillow of bread with three slices of extruded meat proxy in the middle, smothered mercilessly in off-white lettuce and pink fat sauce"...

I can't believe the infinitesimal amount of product they put on the sandwiches. It's like the thinnest-sliced meat/veggies on earth, or barely a smear of tuna fish. It's a joke.

Awesome. Urp.

Just when you think the corporate takeover of America cant provoke any more outrage, something like this pops up. I can hear the scumbag lawyers and middle managers now. 'I know! Say we're doing them a favor!'

Footlong hotdog stands are as much a part of New England summers as clams. The fact that a corporate fast food chain can actually claim to own the word says so much about the state of our country right now.

No more subway for me.

ITA. Just the fact that Subway thought it would be a good PR move to do this pisses me off. They are exactly what's going wrong in today's society. I won't be patronizing Subway sandwiches anymore.

There is no way this came from the Subway PR department. This reeks of lawyers. I imagine the Subway PR team is slamming their fingers in a car door again and again, to put off having to write the responses to the negative backlash that is currently welling up.

Right, it's the PR team that's quoted in the latter part of the article saying that the letter wasn't supposed to have been sent, but was "a clerical error."

Will I get the letter to keep me from describing my penis?

Is it still "only five dollars"?

LOL

I'm surprised it took five comments to get to the penis jokes.

Not unless it's from the Chinese restaurant down your block which sells those disgusting deep fried mini spring rolls.

you will be required to use the more accurate phrase "baby foot long"

Since Subway pulled such a dick move, I'd say so.

maybe A&W should get dibs because they've had "footlong" hot dogs on their menu for decades.

...you know who ELSE is getting a cease and desist order?

This makes me LOL like nobody's business :)

what a psycho. You aren't a lawyer. For the sake of peace here, I will not use the photo here but I will send you a link on its posting. ;D. Also you send me email that your facebook profile was all fake including the photo. and created to bait me. Jaycjay schooled your ignorant a**

eh, what?

Please say Jaycjay.

Heh. Hey, I'm just trying to help out any readers here who may someday receive one. A C&D letter is different from a C&D order issued by a judge or some governmental entity with legal authority. It's basically just a threat of legal action, and sometimes is sent without any actual legal basis behind it -- which is exactly the case with this one.

No legal basis behind it, BUT if you get one from a big company (as I have), a lot of times it's scary enough to make you cease and desist whatever it is that you're doing at the risk that they might actually ruin your life.

What's the difference between ceasing and desisting? Can you do one but not the other?

Sure, that's why they're used. They're a threat, and the recipient has to weigh the pros and cons in deciding how to proceed -- whether that recipient is legally in the right or not.

recipient also does not have to follow the 'threat' if they don't want to, although they could face legal if they don't if the plaint. wants to push it.

i know a girl who is in-house at Doctor's Associates (parent of Subway) who says their only goal is to see exactly how many people will follow through- exactly what most c&d's are.

also, it seems to fall more along the lines of a copyright suit, which will go no where since 'footlong' relates to a unit of length, which cannot be copyrighted to begin with. Subway basically wants their 'enemies' tp start selling '12-inchers' versus 'footlongs.'

"Subway's legal action came to light when Blair Hensley, owner of the Coney Island Drive Inn in Brooksville, Florida, passed his C&D along to the media."

It's not actually a "legal action." It's a letter from a lawyer, but with no force of law behind it. Anyone can write a C&D letter.

Well, yes and no. I'd agree that I use the term the same way -- and I understand that you're trying to draw a distinction between a lawsuit (which must be answered) and a C&D (which may be ignored).

But at the same time...if you hire a lawyer to send someone a C&D, have you taken "legal action" in at least some sense? Well, yeah, ok, not in the sense that a specialist would use the term. But it's close enough that I wouldn't go around correcting people about it, either.

Maybe the MTA can issue a cease and desist over the word Subway. That would be great.

LOL LOVE IT!!!!!

Brilliant! haha