IHOP sues Missouri Church: Pancakes versus Eucharist

Perhaps the Pope could offer mediation by promoting IHOP pancakes for Eucharist.

The world-famous International House of Pancakes – mostly known by the abbreviation “IHOP” – has done the unthinkable: They are suing a church over the use of its initials.

IHOP serves thousands of pancakes from its celebrated lunch menu daily, and their numerous registered trademarks include: IHOP, IHOP Restaurant, Nobody does breakfast like IHOP does breakfast and other novelty phrases.

IHOP might be in the pancake business for over 30 years, but personally I can count the times I had breakfast there on the fingers of one hand.
If Yakuza had cut off my thumb, middle finger and pinkie, I could still count the times on one hand.

The International House of Prayer is a Missouri-based church, formed in 1999 in Kansas City. They are being sued for using the same acronym, IHOP.

In their own words:

IHOP–KC is an evangelical missions organization that is committed to praying for the release of the fullness of God’s power and purpose as we actively win the lost, heal the sick, feed the poor, make disciples, and impact the seven spheres of society (family, education, government, economy, arts, media, and religion).

Amen to that.

It seems that IHOP is mighty ticked off by the church’s message, or by the fact that the church operates from IHOP.org. The church web site makes it pretty clear that they are not in any way associated with IHOP or its world famous pancakes.

It’s odd, however, that the International House of Pancakes is turning a blind eye onto IHOP.net – a creative agency’s web site, that also operates from IhopWorld.com.

On top of that, several other “IHOP” TLDs are parked, displaying content or ads related to pancakes, so why isn’t IHOP suing these instead?

We’ll have to wait and see how the International House of Prayer defends itself, in the name of Lord Jesus. They’d better get some aggressive lawyers together, lest they become an Internet House of Pain.

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