I *Can* Change My Mold

So many of you have written in recent months for an update on my sob story concerning the new Paris cupcakery who trademarked & opened shop with a name almost identical to Little Miss Cupcake (a name I have been using since 2008)....Here's Part 2 and a Happy Ending!

When I last wrote I described my efforts to settle this amicably. Whereby the CopyCat sicced her lawyer on me. At this point, I felt I had no choice but to file an opposition with the INPI, France's equivalent of the Trademark Office. My lawyer explained this was likely a lost cause but a mandatory first step if I wanted to fight this. Why? A search of the INPI online database shows not a single case where a non-trademarked brand (that would be me) successfully blocked a trademark filing of a similarly named company. But I understood it had to be done.



So it was no surprise when I received the official reply from the INPI stating I had failed to show evidence that Little Miss Cupcake is a well-known name among the Parisian cupcake eating public. Despite the fact that I submitted over 250 pages of press articles naming Little Miss Cupcake as a pioneer and one of the more established cupcake bakers on the market; order invoices from well-known corporate clients; visitor statistics from my blog and other social media; emails from individuals and corporations interested in partnering with me; my ownership of the domain names, etc. In their reply they stated that only proved that Little Miss Cupcake exists but not as a trademarked brand; that I am written about frequently; that I get lots of orders; that I have a lot of people online who are interested in me and my company news as well as people interested in doing business with my company. BUT this fails to prove that Little Miss Cupcake is a brand that people know of. I can’t say I follow this logic at all but then I guess that is what bureaucracy is all about.



As infuriated and depressed this news left me I realized I had to accept the ruling and move on. My lawyer laid out my options : 1) keep my head down and co-exist in the market with CopyCat, 2) take CopyCat to court, 3) wait to see if CopyCat came after me for "counterfeiting" her brand (can you imagine?), or 4) proactively change my name. My lawyer felt strongly about option #2 and mapped out the road ahead. But as I listened to her drone on about the process, I wasn't sure I was ready for a long, drawn-out, expensive court battle. Preparing my dossier for the INPI had been difficult enough and took me weeks to pull together. The prospect of living with this for another year, sapping my energies and leaving me in a constant state of stress just wasn't an option for me. So for the short-term, I decided to take my time and weigh my options before moving forward. Besides, I was so busy before the summer and happily distracted doing what I love doing: baking, rather than focusing on this ugly affair.

And then the emails and blog comments started rolling in.

People who had visited CopyCat's shop thinking she was me wrote to accuse me of photo-shopping or stealing the pictures on my blog because what they had seen in "my" shop didn't look anything like what was advertised online. Or that I was a hack - after a visit to "my" shop, they decided I must be paying people to write glowing reviews about me because my cupcakes tasted like (expletive removed!). One woman went so far as to tell me I should be ashamed of being an American and to sell my products as “cupcakes” was an insult to the US! F*ck me! All this time I was steamed that CopyCat was going to profit from my reputation, it never even occurred to me that she could ruin it, and man did that piss me off. After the 40th or so email of this type (and my god were some of these people nasty!), I decided it was time to take matters into my own hands.

I don’t want to stagnate in this situation – it’s tiring, it’s frustrating and I don't like putting negative energy out there. So I've decided it's time to make a break with the past. It's the only way I can safeguard what I have worked so hard to build. I'll be slowly phasing out Little Miss Cupcake as the "official" name of my cupcake entreprise these next few weeks. She served me well, and I'll always carry a piece of her with me, but it's time to put some distance between myself and CopyCat.


Introducing...drum roll please...Sugar Daze! I may have a new name but I remain your best Paris source for delicious, fresh-baked American-style cupcakes! And most importantly, I have filed for the trademark. Help me spread the word!

I've learned some very painful but valuable lessons about running a business these past few months. I'm still in shock over French policies regarding trademarks and rights of use. And disappointed that I am the one who has to pay so dearly in a situation where I truly believe I was wronged. All because I made the rookie mistake of not trademarking my business name! But I am sick of feeling angry and bitter. Time to turn the page on this chapter and move on. Bye Bye Little Miss Cupcake, and HELLO Sugar Daze!

Thanks to all of you who have stood by me in these troubling times. Your friendship and support have meant more to me than you will ever know! And thanks to Aleberry Creative for designing my funky new logo!



Contact: info@sugardazecupcakes.com
Get Sugar Dazed: www.sugardazecupcakes.com

There Ain't No Easy Way Out, Hey Gonna Stand My Ground

I had just seen the film Little Miss Sunshine when my friend Annie suggested I name my start-up cupcake venture, Little Miss Cupcake. I liked it -- it had a cute ring to it. And given that my mother has been calling me Little Miss C (for Catherine, my full first name) since I was about 6, it seemed somehow to be a sign.

About 8 weeks ago, I received a message from a twitter friend. She wrote to tell me about a new cupcake shop opening in her neighborhood and wondered if I knew about it. "I have an idea of who it could be," I wrote back knowing of another baker whose store was to open soon. "What's the name?" I asked. A few hours later a new message popped up in my inbox, "Is it you?" my friend asked. Attached was a twitpic of a woman I had never seen before staring into the camera from the doorway of a storefront. Above her head, painted on the facade of the not-yet-opened cupcakery was a name that made my heart stop. Quite simply, it was too close to my brand name for comfort. (I refuse to dedicate even a millimeter of my blog to mention this store by name so I will just refer it to it as CopyCat Cupcakes. Get it? I go by the name Cat!).



I immediately hit google to see what I could learn about CopyCat. But wouldn't you know, on google.fr if you type in the real name of CopyCat Cupcakes you get about 1,000,000 returns, the first 14 pages of which are all about my company, Little Miss Cupcake and absolutely ZERO about her. Hmmm. I started ringing round to friends in the industry and about 10 minutes later, one of them sent me a copy of CopyCat’s request to the French trademark office to trademark the name (this info is publicly available on the web). Egads! What I then learned made my blood boil...in France, it is usually the first to file (her in February 2010) who is favored in trademark suits as opposed to the first to use (me since 2008).



I have an advertising background. I should have known to protect myself. Trademarking was something I was eventually going to get around to. But let's face it, the market here is very small and specialized. There are only a handful of us making cupcakes in Paris and because I am a fairly well-known brand, it didn't even cross my mind that someone would try to steal my name. I mean could you imagine if I tried to open a cupcake gear store and called it Mrs. Johnny Cupcakes? I bet I would get shot out of the cupcake canon for that one. And this is basically akin to what CopyCat Cupcakes has done.



I really wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt. Maybe the similarity of our names was an honest mistake. But seriously, if you are going to invest a few thousand euros to open a cupcake store, don't you think you'd do even the tiniest bit of research? If all she had done was google.fr "cupcake," Little Miss Cupcake comes up on the 1st page of results. I have subsequently learned that she has bought the rights to a domain name that is virtually an iteration of my own AND started a blog here on blogger with an URL that is almost identical to mine. I had to admit, what I chalked up to "coincidences" stopped there. The legal term here in France for what she is doing is called "parasitisme" and what a fitting name it is.



A few legal friends advised that I contact CopyCat to see if we could find an amicable solution. If all else fails, they said, I could file an opposition with the trademark office. I didn't want an ugly fight, so I sent CopyCat an informal letter as an opener. Would she consider changing her name? I would even reimburse her for the hefty fee of filing the trademark. I was hopeful – at that point, she hadn't opened her store yet and I couldn't imagine she had much invested in the name. But my letter went unanswered. And then, two weeks later, a note arrived from a big law firm on the tony Champs-Elysees. The lawyer started off by telling me that I couldn't claim a generic word like "cupcake" as my own (I never did) and that I certainly couldn't prevent others from making and selling cupcakes in France (Really? I thought I had exclusive rights to be the ONLY cupcake baker in France, hell, in the world!).



Furthermore, the lawyer went on to say that my claim of ownership to the name Little Miss Cupcake was ridiculous -- that I am not even a real business (Oh? I have the siret #/taxpayer ID to prove otherwise. Jeez maybe I should stop paying taxes on my biz revenues!) and that no one has ever heard of me (Hmm, I guess I just imagined that pile of press clippings from L'Express, Psychologies, Elle, Grazia, Huffington Post, New York Magazine, New York Times, etc. etc. etc. citing Little Miss Cupcake....all those requests from the TV stations to appear on shows -- never happened....all the fans on Facebook, my blogs, twitter -- I guess they are just figments of my imagination?... And the many, many requests I have received for business collaborations here in France and as far off as Germany and Japan -- I guess those were meant for another Little Miss Cupcake who happens to have the same email address as me?). The part that killed me though was her insistence that there is no similarity between our names -- my name consists of 3 words: "Little" "Miss" and "Cupcake." CopyCat's consists of 2 words, both of which happen to be in my name -- BUT that I was now warned that I should not use the name Little Miss Cupcake in any communications outside of my blogs. Come again?



The past few weeks have been a horror. I have had many sleepless nights on account of this matter and it seems to be going nowhere slowly. I have worked so hard to build my reputation; when I think of all the late nights and early mornings spent lovingly hand-crafting decorations to go on cupcakes, baking custom orders, all the time that I have sacrificed with my children and my husband to foster my business and promote the Little Miss Cupcake name, it breaks my heart. I'm going to do what I can to keep my name and to deter CopyCat from capitalizing on my hard work. Unfortunately though I don't think the legal precedence is on my side.



A note from Natalie at Bake and Destroy told me to try to stay positive -- that perhaps I should view this as an opportunity to reinvent myself. Easier said than done. Anyway the point of this post is to say first off to those of you who have followed this saga: I appreciate the kind words and support I have received from you all. For those of you with fledgling business like me, take the time and protect yourself from something like this. If you don't follow my blog and just happened across it, I want you to know: I do NOT have a store in Paris (yet!) and I am in no way affiliated with a like-named store in the 18th. Please don't be confused by our similar sounding names and patronize it under the impression that you are buying Little Miss Cupcake cupcakes. My cupcakes are currently only available via custom order from me directly.

The story continues here.....