Pittsburgh-based restaurant icon Eat ‘n Park is in the news with a claim that a New York-based cookie company is infringing Eat ‘n Park’s trademark rights in the smiley cookie. Local broadcaster WTAE posted its story on the dispute on YouTube.
If this history of the smiley face is correct, then Eat ‘n Park may be biting off more than it can chew. The New Yorkers are using an image — a smiley face without a nose — that’s been in broad public use for many, many years, and that has nothing to do with the restaurant.