In: Accounting
Haydel enterprises owned and operated a bakery in New Orleans,
Louisiana, selling pastries such as Mardi Gras king cakes. Haydel
asked an artist to design a “bead dog” to replicate the dogs made
out of beads thrown at Mardi Gras celebrations. Haydel registered
the words “MarDi Gras BeaD DOG” and the bead dog design as
trademarks covering items such as king cake pastries, jewelry, and
clothing. Over a six-year period, Haydel sold about 80 clothing
items and 300 jewelry items featuring bead dogs, plus an
unidentified number of king cakes with bead dogs. One magazine
article featur- ing Haydel’s products called bead dogs “an iconic
Mardi Gras symbol.” Three years after Haydel reg- istered the bead
dog trademarks, raquel Duarte began selling jewelry featuring bead
dogs. Duarte filed a lawsuit against Haydel in which she asked the
court to declare that she was not breaking any trademark law by
selling the bead dog jewelry and requested Haydel’s trademarks be
canceled. Duarte argued that Haydel’s trademarks were descriptive
in nature and had not acquired distinctive- ness whereby customers
associated the trademarks with Haydel’s goods. was Duarte
correct?
When the concluding question in a case problem can be answered
simply yes or no, state the legal principle or rule of law that
supports your answer.