OK Go Settle Lawsuit With Cereal Company
OK Go, the rock band best known for conquering early YouTube with a series of viral music videos, recently has been drawn into a war with the breakfast cereal company Post Foods. As the band’s Damian Kulash explained in January, Post released a line of portable cereal cups branded “ok go!” and applied to trademark the phrase; OK Go responded by asking Post to choose a different name, at which point Post sued the band.
Now, as Billboard reports, OK Go and Post have reached a “confidential settlement agreement” and asked a federal judge in Minnesota to dismiss the lawsuit, with both sides paying their own legal bills. The filing indicates that the band and the breakfast company “settled this action on terms agreeable to all parties” but does not disclose the terms of the settlement. According to a new statement from the band, pursuant to the settlement Post has agreed to withdraw its trademark application.
At the time of the lawsuit, OK Go issued the following statement to Billboard:
A big corporation chose to steal the name of our band to market disposable plastic cups of sugar to children. That was an unwelcome surprise, to say the least. But then they sue US about it? Presumably, the idea is that they can just bully us out of our own name, since they have so much more money to spend on lawyers? I guess that’s often how it works, but hopefully, we’ll be the exception.
It’s unclear whether Post will continue selling the “ok go!” cereal cups as part of the settlement; my best guess is that they will and have compensated the band in exchange for continuing to use the name. If so, think of how many treadmills they can buy now…