Say 'Tillamook' and you could be in a vat of trouble
The word — meaning "Land of Many Rivers" — also adorns Tillamook cheddar — a cheese whose prominence has been on the rise since it became available nationwide and McDonald's began test-marketing a Tillamook Cheeseburger.
But three years ago, the creamery that makes the cheddar tried to claim the name for itself, sending requests to several businesses that they remove "Tillamook" from their logos.
Today, a federal judge will hear both sides of the trademark battle dividing the coastal valley where cows outnumber people.
"It absolutely mystifies me how somebody can trademark the name of a place," said Dick Crossley, co-owner of Tillamook Country Smoker, the nation's ninth-largest producer of beef jerky.
The company, which has marketed jerky under the Tillamook name since 1976, received a request from the creamery. So did Chokes from Tillamook, an artichoke farm, and Tillamook Mist, a proposed bottling plant.
Only Country Smoker could afford to fight back.
"If we lose our name, we lose everything," said Crossley, explaining he has more than $3 million tied up in inventory of boxes, plastic casings and cardboard displays — all emblazoned with the Tillamook name.
Jim McMullen, chief executive of the Tillamook County Creamery Association, argues that trademarking a place name is not unusual — he points to Philadelphia Cream Cheese, Hershey's Candies, Nantucket Nectars and Pendleton Woolens.
"The Tillamook brand has been built over a century by the Tillamook dairy families," said McMullen. "It's our obligation to safeguard it."
Brand names, experts say, are one of the top two factors influencing consumers in the dairy department. In 2002, the International Dairy Deli Bakery Association surveyed 900 consumers nationwide on their choice of products. One-third said brand is what gets their attention in the dairy aisle, after price.
McMullen says the trouble started in 1997, when the beef-jerky maker hired the creamery's former designer and revamped its packages to enlarge the word "Tillamook." The creamery said it began receiving calls and e-mails asking if Tillamook Cheese and Tillamook Country Smoker were one and the same.
Confusion is the primary argument used in court to protect trademarks, said attorney Doug Hendricks, a trademark expert at a San Francisco law firm. But the key to proving confusion is: Do the names refer to the same type of goods? Major companies that use geographical names have tended to enforce the trademark only within the same food category.
"Our trademark is 'Philadelphia Cream Cheese.' Not 'Philadelphia,' " said Kraft spokeswoman Alyssa Burns.
Christine Dugan, spokeswoman for Hershey, said the company guards its trademark when it comes to anything sweet — candy, breakfast cereal, pudding, chocolate milk and the famous Hershey's Kiss.
"We clearly wouldn't want another company out there called Cabot Cheese," agreed Jed Davis, the marketing director of Vermont's Cabot Cheese, whose cheddar dominates the East Coast specialty-cheese market.
The Tillamook creamery rejects that line of the food-category argument.
"We have no problem with Tillamook Toyota," countered McMullen. "But meat and cheese go together."
The creamery, founded in 1909 by Swiss dairy farmers who settled the area, began as a model of humble cooperation. Farmers pooled their resources so they could afford to ship the cheese beyond the walls of the valley.
Its rift with local businesses began in 2001, about the same time the creamery underwent a $50 million expansion.
On the creamery's Web site and on the wall of the visitor center, the word Tillamook now appears next to the trademark symbol — an R in a circle.
While Tillamook Country Smoker has spent more than $1 million mounting its defense, other businesses simply acquiesced.
"They've become a bully," said businessman Billy Schreiber, who lives on Tillamook Avenue and gave up on plans to start Tillamook Mist, bottling water from the Tillamook River.
A couple who sold their homegrown artichokes as "Chokes from Tillamook" at local farmers markets dropped the name after receiving a phone call from the creamery. "We don't have money to burn," said Patrick Zweifel, who has changed the name of his business to Oregon Coastal Flowers. The battle has even reached several thousand miles away. Five hours down the coast, two Bandon businesses got the creamery's letter after Tillamook Cheese bought the Bandon Cheese factory and launched a "Bandon Style" line of cheddar. Ten out-of-state businesses using "Bandon" in their names received similar letters, according to a letter posted on the creamery's Web site.
It provoked an outcry from the Bandon City Council, as well as the mayor of Bandon, Ireland — the town's namesake.
"The irony," remarked Davis of the Cabot Creamery in Vermont, "is cheddar is cheddar because it comes from the Cheddar Gorge in England."