New Orleans IP: Chee Wees

It seems I missed a very important variety of cheese curls back when I blogged about them on Cheese Doodle Day. I can only assume it is because I was looking for doodles rather than curls. 

Are you familiar with the New Orleans favorite, Chee Wees? I certainly was not, until our marketing and communications specialist introduced me just a few days ago. And while my first instinct was to burst into laughter when seeing the name, I soon found myself hoping there was hefty IP backing them up.

Library Cat modeling a bag of bar-b-que Chee Wees

Also, before we begin with the more serious stuff, let me warn you: the bar-b-que (weird spelling, y'all) flavor is a little addicting. I meant to just taste them before writing this, to, I dunno, inspire? But ended up having a hard time putting them down long enough to type.

Delicious Chee Wees

Delicious, delicious Chee Wees

First, the most basic of trademark searches reveals two federal registrations, one live and one dead. The dead registration is for the stylized word mark, first registered (no. 0393362) in 1942, but expired back in 1986. 

The registered stylized word mark, no. 0393362

The plain word mark, however, registered in 1958 (no. 0663902), is still active. I expected the stylized words to be registered, but perhaps this is preferable, as it does not mandate any specific appearance.

What exactly were they doing in the four years between application and existence?!

However, the larger potential IP was for the Elmer's brand, and I was very interested in the mascot mouse (or rat, I guess). I found several marks for Elmer's, but was disappointed to see that none of them included the mouse. What an oversight, in my opinion! That mouse is clearly very strongly tied to the brand. 

Trademark registered since 1954

Nonetheless, the stylized word mark was first registered in 1954 (no. 0596874), and a few variations have emerged since. For example, the addition of New Orleans prompted a new registration in 1970 (no. 0894707). However, that one seems limited to candy, unlike the original, which is both candy and cheese curls. 

Good for candy only, since 1970

But wait! Is there more?

We can't ignore the Limited Edition Juvenile collaboration! It features not only New Orleans artist Juvenile but also super hot snacks! [Whether the heat is referring to temperature of cooking alone, or includes the spiciness, I can't tell. And I won't be sharing today, because a bag of cheese curls for lunch should only happen once a day.] Perhaps this version had some hidden IP.

Library Cat is also very interested in these snacks

It turns out, this is one of the cases where I wish it was clearer why the trademark search returned the results it did. I was unable to find anything that seemed directly connected to the specific snack depicted above, but I found enough results to make me wonder about potential connections.

Not a registered mark: "The Big Cheese of New Orleans"

Unfortunately, I could find no patents in a brief search--not that I expected any. Chances are, Elmer's is too small of a firm to either afford the patents or the research to lead to some kind of patentable food product. A design patent is possible, but I still found nothing.

Visit Fondren soon to taste some Chee Wees!