The company that owns the popular sandwich chain Subway has slapped Nippon Suisan Kaisha-owned seafood processor King & Prince with a trademark dispute.
Per a complaint filed by Subway parent company Doctor’s Associates Inc. on 24 November, the key area of contention involves the similarities between the names of two competing products. The sandwich officially referred to as the “Subway Seafood Sensation” shares considerable similarities with respect to title as the 14-pound cases of imitation crab meat sold by King & Prince to food distributors under the name “Seafood Sensations.”
While both companies have been using the “seafood sensation” title for quite some time now in their own respective fashions, trouble came to a head on 29 September, when King & Prince issued a cease-and-desist letter to the sandwich juggernaut requesting that subs no longer be sold as “Seafood Sensations.”
Another letter was issued by King & Prince on 6 November asking for Subway to either stop selling the sandwiches or pay the processor 10 percent royalty on net sales revenue moving forward as well as for the past six years, according to Doctor’s Associates Inc. If Subway agreed to source seafood for the sandwich from King & Prince, the company would allow for a reduced rate to be paid for trademark royalties.
Doctor’s Associates Inc. and Subway have requested that a court judge rule on whether or not their sandwich marketing tactics infringe upon the King & Prince trademark.
