There is a big hole in the middle of Krispy Kreme’s sweet success

In the cutthroat doughnut retail market, conglomerate Krispy Kreme has entered recently into… In the cutthroat doughnut retail market, conglomerate Krispy Kreme has entered recently into what may be the largest legal battle of the company’s history.

This may come as a shock to many, including the student organizations that buy boxes of the doughnuts for $3 and sell them at a markup in the Litchfield Towers lobby. The company is now in a fight for its very survival.

Recently, lawyers for the doughnut company threatened Krispy Kream, a small ice-cream stand, with a copyright infringement lawsuit. The stand, in nearby Cambria County, has stood in the same place with the same name for the entirety of its 36-year existence.

The stand serves ice cream and sandwiches during the summer and had the misfortune to be discovered by a Krispy Kreme employee earlier this fall. Lawyers quickly issued a 10-day ultimatum to Krispy Kream to change its name or face the sweet, jelly-filled wrath of the doughnut company.

Krispy Kreme extended the deadline by a liberal amount of time in a gesture of holiday goodwill, but the mom-and-pop shop decided early on they were happy with their name and would keep it.

The ice cream stand’s proprietors felt that their name, displayed beside a large ice cream cone visible to drivers along route 422, would not confuse customers seeking doughnuts. The Krispy Kreme corporation clearly disagreed.

John Metz, owner of nine Krispy Kremes in western Pennsylvania called then-president of the doughnut behemoth, Scott Livengood — by far the coolest name of a businessman — to explain that this might not be in the corporation’s best interests. The last thing the already Atkins-ravaged company needed was the image of bullying a small business whose name is, admittedly, pretty close but which poses no threat to the company.

Still, the ice-cream-stand owners face precious little time until they are iced beneath the original glaze of the merciless doughnut juggernaut. Maybe Krispy Kreme is frightened because the ice cream stand sponsors two local tee-ball teams that may be seen by as many as dozens of parents. You just can’t compete with that kind of publicity.

Krispy Kreme corporate lawyers say that they are more worried about brand name dilution than of losing doughnut-seeking customers. But considering that the ice-cream stand has stood since 1961 with the present name, years before the first doughnut franchise came to Western Pennsylvania in 2001, the situation looks less about protection of a brand name and more about ridding the world of all non-krispy snacks.

It would probably be easy for Krispy Kreme to make its case for trademark infringement. The local hangout did establish its name in 1961, 10 years after the then-obscure Southern doughnut franchise had its patented.

Despite this, Krispy Kreme has somehow managed to overcome its adversary to post profits in excess of $170 million during the third quarter of 2004. It’s no wonder then, that the company is taking the high-school-student-staffed stand so seriously.

Even though Kream’s owners are willing to place a sign on their property stating their small, family-owned ice cream stand and the large multinational doughnut franchise are unaffiliated, they still expect the case eventually to go to trial. If they lose, they will have to pay large fees to change business contracts, licenses, logos and a plethora of other items bearing the ice-cream stand’s name.

There is certainly a legitimate economic interest in protecting trademarks. Foakleys, those cheap, knock-off glasses, continuously nip at Oakley’s good name. I’ve always thought that Pizza Hut should sue Sunglass Hut, which could have just as easily named itself Sunglass Shack and not diluted Pizza Hut’s monopoly on the word hut.

Even though Krispy Kream did register its name 10 years later than Krispy Kreme, the doughnut company has a responsibility as a large and prosperous corporation to realize that it is a guest in our towns and should help build our communities in ways beyond providing sugar highs.

In an era when advertisements and trademarks are better known than the middle part of our national anthem, I think it’s nice that there are some local hangouts out there that haven’t yet become Krispy Kremes, 7-Elevens, Sheetzes or Turkey Hills. Wawas are cool though. There is an exception to every rule.

Sam Morey’s favorite Krispy Kreme snack is glazed pumpkin spice cake. Send him doughnuts and e-mails at smorey88@hotmail.com.