Helloooo Lawsuit – Uploaded by Zuckervati.
Snapped this at Zehrs while looking for a new cereal to try (it seems I still like kids’ cereal, after all these years). I wonder if some ballsy business exec stood up one day and said "Let’s f*ck with Kellogg’s and their goddamn brand recognition."
I have a feeling that “Frosted Flakes”, like “Corn Flakes”, is too generic and cannot be trademarked.
Note there is no circle-R next to the name, and yet there is one next to “Tony” on his kerchief.
Kellogs actually lost a bunch of court battles in the 70s over this, I recall.
I don’t think I captured it in the picture, but I believe there was an asterisk beside the Frosted Flakes text. The side of the box said that everything marked with an asterisk was trademarked/registered.
My bet is that “Frosted Flakes of corn” is what they trademarked, and that your guess is correct that “Frosted Flakes” is too generic.
A quick Google Images search shows a few other boxes, where beside the “Frosted Flakes (of corn)” title, there’s a circle R, or a TM, depending on how old the boxes are.
you remember though that there is raisin bran and “post” raisin bran. besides, one is a tiger and the other is a polar bear.