Louisville Newspaper Beats ‘Derby Pie’ Trademark Claims

Two Louisville Courier-Journal articles that mentioned “Derby Pie” didn’t infringe a trademark in the term, a Kentucky federal court ruled.

The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky dismissed the case Thursday because the newspaper didn’t use Derby Pie as a trademark.

Alan Rupp owns a federal trademark for “Derby-Pie” covering a “well-known chocolate nut pie.” Rupp sued the newspaper based on two articles—one with a restaurant’s recipe for “Derby chocolate-walnut pie” with the headline “Bourbon makes this Derby pie a state original,” and one about a local bakery with a photo caption for “Derby Pie macarons.”

Rupp’s ...