Less than 4 months ago, the world-acclaimed (in their own minds, anyway) International House of Pancakes sued a church in Missouri.
The reason? The IHOP mark.
The International House of Prayer used the same acronym for the church, which according to the lawyers of the waffle-maker restaurant was a violation of their “famous mark” rights.
The good news is that in true holiday spirit, IHOP has dropped the lawsuit and is seeking mediation outside of the courts.
It’s interesting to note that the church never filed a response through the court system; instead, direct communication and increased awareness of the public created plenty of backlash against the IHOP restaurant.
Acronyms can be shared between different venues and organizations, but one cannot stop the stupidity of middle management launching a holy war against a church.
