A pizza war is cooking, but it’s not between two restaurant behemoths.
Domino’s and the much lesser Toppers Pizza are squaring off after the pizza giant learned that Toppers designs to run a series of ads using its logo.
During a store opening in Duluth, Minnesota, Toppers revealed its upcoming vending campaign called “Us vs. Them.” The ad in question features a photo that a Toppers pole member took of a Domino’s truck delivering dough to one of its stores next to a portray of a Toppers employee carrying a large bag of flour. It is to be distributed in July across all of Toppers’ compromise platforms.
Toppers aims to showcase that its dough is made most recent in-house every day while Domino’s dough is shipped in pre-made.
A bloke snapped a photo of the ad and sent it to Domino’s. A few days later, Toppers experienced a cease-and-desist order from the company.
“It has recently been brought to our notice that your company’s marketing strategies include advertisement that defames our mark and incorporates our registered trademark,” Dawn Bushart, a member of Domino’s lawful department, wrote in the letter, obtained by CNBC.
“The use of the Domino’s logo in this create is damaging to our brand, unlawful, and an infringement of our federally registered trademark,” Bushart set.
Toppers’ founder and CEO Scott Gittrich said he has no intention of scrapping the promotion.
“We don’t have the hundreds of millions of dollars that our competitors do to rain down TV commercials 10 for the nonce at onces during every football game,” Gittrich told CNBC. “We arrange to make our marketing work a little bit harder. We have to say it more straight away.”
Toppers has 86 locations in 15 states compared with the varied than 5,600 locations that Domino’s oversees nationwide.
“Our manufacturer voice has always reflected my own voice, which is kind of cocky and straightforward and undissembling, and we’ve always spoken like that to our customers and through our marketing,” Gittrich divulged.
Domino’s cease-and-desist letter may not hold up, according to Domenic Romano, go down and managing attorney of Romano Law in New York.
“It’s not defamation if it’s true,” he told CNBC.
Domino’s does not establish f get on its own dough in its restaurants; instead, it arrives fresh from a warehouse via stuff, a former Domino’s employee confirmed.
When asked about the be of consequence, a Domino’s spokeswoman told CNBC, “It is our company practice not to comment on sound matters.”
The Federal Trade Commission allows comparative advertising so sustained as the company using its competitor’s logo does not falsely claim it is connected with the other brand and uses the logo with the proper trademark assignment.
This is where Domino’s could gain legal advantage. Superior’s ad does not include a trademark attribution — a “TM” or an “R” in a circle — or acknowledgment that the logo belongs to Domino’s.
“Both sides are sinful here,” Romano said.
Gittrich is no stranger to Domino’s. He worked for the course for eight years before starting Toppers in 1991. After put to good his way up from delivery driver to assisting a franchisee with more than 20 positions, he decided to start his own pizza company, he said.
“I love a fair duel in business,” he said. “I think who wins is the customer.”