Anyone following this? Honest Co. is apparently still after Honest Toddler with threats about trademark infringement. Because apparently we're dumb enough to mistake a fake sarcastic toddler for Jessica Alba. So stupid. Glad I've never tried their overpriced diapers, and this ensures I never will.
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I love Honest Toddler! I find Honest Company products to be hit or miss - body oil is amazing, conditioner straightened my perm!! This infringement thing is silly though.
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I love honest toddler!! Viva HT!!
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I just heard a few minutes ago because I follow Honest Toddler on twitter! So dumb! Like HT pointed out, there are plenty of brands that have the word "honest" in them that they aren't going after.
Poooooor honest toddler!
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I saw this in my twitter feed this morning. Makes me not want to try their products.
ETA: The Honest Toddler posted a video response.
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Saw a whole thing about it on the news this am!!
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Wow - interesting.
FWIW I LOVE Honest Co. They're the only diapers I buy.
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I have always wanted to try some of their products but as soon as I caught wind of this I refuse to ever purchase anything from them.
ETA: This reminds me of how Susan G. Komen sues small nonprofits over "for the cure." Honest Company is not going after Honest Tea...and why? Because that's a bigger company, so they're going after the smaller guys. Honest Toddler rocks and makes me laugh regularly.
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Booo. That's so silly. I hope they're inundated with emails and fb and bad twitter feedback so they get the message.
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Boo. I've never liked Jessica Alba (and my husband just despises her), so we didn't buy Honest Co stuff before. This is silly and mean spirited. (I bet they wanted to use "Honest Toddler" in the future for some products and now can't)
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<< Honest Company is not going after Honest Tea...and why? Because that's a bigger company, so they're going after the smaller guys. >>
@mrsjazz: I totally agree that they shouldn't be going after honest toddler! But my guess is that it has less to do with size, and more to do with trademark law? If you don't defend your trademark within its area of intended use (baby products, in this case), you can lose it.
They should just negotiate a friendly agreement though... threatening a lawsuit should be their last resort!
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Never heard of honest Toddler, though my first assumption reading the title, I thought were Honest Company branching off to toddler products. So from a business standpoint, I can see why they would want to protect their trademark if they are entitled to that. I don't know how popular this Honest Toddler kid is, but I can see where both have brands to protect. Never heard of the lawsuit, but perhaps Honest Co. Should have taken a friendlier, out of the public media, buyout/settlement to keep that name. I've liked all their products I've tried so far. I feel it's so hard for any company to do right these days. Here's a company trying to do a bit better, at least giving consumers a choice for better products, and people will want to bash them for any small thing. It's sad that I feel smaller companies lose of in this way. And then we the consumers end up stuck with big brands like P&G or J&J, or paying an arm and a leg for conscientious products. Sorry for the long rant that might not make sense since I'm typing from my phone.
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Saw this in my newsfeed. I used to buy the diapers, but stopped once I found a cheaper natural brand. I won't buy anything else from them. I LOVE Honest Toddler. Gives me a laugh constantly! LOL!
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I've been kind of following this. Totally on HT's side!
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I guess I would understand more if HT were selling some sort of tangible natural/organic baby product, but trying to get a mom to shut down a funny Twitter page? Meh.
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@shopaholic: I don't think people are trying to bash honest company. If anything honest toddler is much smaller and honest company is the "big company."
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@mrbee: It's interesting that Honest Company once featured Honest Toddler on their blog! She ended up getting a lot of new followers from that feature. In my opinion because of all of the success of Honest Toddler (book and there's talk of a TV show) that they are opposing her trademark application. She even said that she'd be willing to sign an agreement that she would never make any products like theirs.
@shopaholic: Honest Toddler is actually very popular. Honest Company is opposing the trademark, I believe they own a bunch of "honest" trademarks but not honest toddler.
And HT was created by a WAHM mom, she's the little guy in this situation. I'm for the little guy.
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@mrsjazz: I follow HT and it sounds like The exec producer of SATC loves HT and wanted to do something with them.
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The Honest Company's side of the story is at honesttoddler.com.
To me nobody is evil or completely innocent here, it's just two businesses going about their everyday business. The Honest Company isn't NOT going to act like a business bc of its image, and the woman behind HT is not some little girl with a lemonade stand.
@mrsjazz: According THC they owned honesttoddler.com first, and THT bought thehonesttoddler.com a few months later.
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Well they're not going after Honest Tea because it obviously has nothing to do with their products. Honest Toddler could easil be associated with honest baby products because it implies its for children.
I'm all about helping the little guy but I think HT is being a little ridiculous. I hope they can come to some amicable agreeing soon. -
I got the impression that it was more over the URL/name as Honest Co registered honesttoddler.com so they probably have plans to expand their brand. I can see both sides of it.
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@mrsmate: right, but that is the website, not the trademark.
Well, Honest Company has a lot of Facebook posts on its wall in support of Honest Toddler, so hopefully they will rethink the trademark challenge because it wouldn't be good business to piss off their buying demographic. I hope they can both just come to some sort of agreement.
@luckypenny: I think Honest Tea also makes Honest Kid products for the little ones, too.
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Aww, I love the honest toddler! So funny! I'm definitely on Honest Toddler's side! I definitely heard of Honest Toddler before the Honest Company.
Just looked over at Honest Company's FB page: https://www.facebook.com/TheHonestCompany
"We became aware that The Honest Toddler filed a trademark application in the same class where we hold superior trademark rights. Under current law, a company's right to its trademarks can be lost if not licensed or supervised properly by the owner. It's unfortunate, but we cannot allow other businesses or individuals to file trademarks in our class and compromise our brand or ability to sell products in different categories. We remain interested in pursuing an amicable resolution with The Honest Toddler — one that does not impact her current and future course of business online and in the media. We hope to resolve this complicated legal issue in a timely manner. For more information, please see our detailed response at http://www.honesttoddler.com."
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@bluestriped bee: It's interesting because Honest Company doesn't come out and say that they don't actually own the trademark "honest toddler." They own about 40 trademarks under honest, but not honest toddler. And they want to offer her a license to use honest toddler, which I understand from a business perspective, but they could take the license away at some point and how much will they charge her? I'm assuming they are challenging her so that they can add it to their umbrella of honest trademarks.
Look at the Honest Kids site: http://www.honesttea.com/kids/ site. Guess Honest Company doesn't own "honest kids" under their superior trademark rights.
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@mrsjazz: that's the key point, I think. Because they didn't apply for the trademark "honest toddler" but have older and more numerous trademarks in and around the area where they perceive competition, they are attempting to "compromise" by assuming an ability to license where they have none.
And yes, if we're being reductive, I'm definitely Team Toddler!
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@shopaholic: I agree with you. When I saw the post My immediate thought was they were expanding into a sub brand called the honest toddler... So I can totally understand why it would be an issue. Like you, I'd never heard of the honest toddler.
@luckypenny: I agree with you.
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From a trademark law perspective, this doesn't appear to be a close call? The Honest Company wouldn't have gone after Honest Toddler, but HT filed for a trademark and THC had to respond.
Brands like "Honest ____" are in heavily contested areas, and the trademarks are very limited in scope. HT appears to overlap with THC's business scope though, so they have to do something or they will lose their trademark protection.
All that said, THC could be managing the PR better much better... it's a crisis PR moment for them.
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@luckypenny: Honest Tea makes Honest Kids, which seems just as confusing and actually sells kid-related products.
@mrbee: Using a descriptor in the name is a hard trademark to defend. HT is not using the whole trademarked name either so it's not an infringement that they'd have to pursue, I'd characterize that as bullying more than a necessity of defending their trademark. -
I am not a fan of Honest Company or Jessica Alba. I find their marketing annoying along with their prices. I'm team Honest Toddler.
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I am team Honest Toddler for all the reasons that @mrsjazz and @maysprout have stated. This is not the first confrontation from the Honest Company, and THC has offered compromises to help make this go away. But, it seems to me that being the big guy, HC is only interested in applying it's vast resources to bully the little guy. I most certianly would not buy any thing from HC and I will tell everyone I know not to based on this issue, which I consider to be bullying. I can't stand bullies.
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Agree. @pregnantbee: . I debated trying before but now I def won't. I hate it when companies market themselves as a "Family" company then they go and do something like this.
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Honest Company's response has been great, but this is a sticky area.. ever been to nissan.com?
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WOW. This makes me really glad I've never bought Honest Co. products. I hate when companies do this.
So shady.This reminds me of the situation with Nordstrom's going after a small thrift store over the use of "Off the Rack" in their store name. Ridiculous.
Someone just gifted me The Honest Toddler book, actually. I'd never heard of her before then.
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@mrs. wagon: oh wow~~!
i don't like that THC is going after the small guy, but i don't think THT has been all that gracious about it either.
i guess we'll see who wins out!
fwiw, i think THC is overpriced.
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@regberadaisy: I'm going to share the link that you shared on the thread you created.
The blogger, Bunmi Laditan, from the Honest Toddler speaks her side of the story.
http://bunmiladitan.wordpress.com/2013/07/30/honest-company-timeline-of-events/
From the Bunmi Laditan site:
Myth: The Honest Company is protecting its business names.
FACT: The Honest Toddler was the first to use the mark in commerce and had no desire to prevent the Honest Company from using the word “honest” to promote its line of eco-friendly baby products. Many companies operate successfully with similar names. Consumers are not confused by Dove Soap and Dove Chocolates.
Myth: The Honest Toddler trademark is in a class that would be confusing with the marks owned by Honest Company
FACT: The Honest Toddler’s mark is in a trademark class specifically for media and entertainment, which is fitting for a mom blogger. All but one of Honest Company’s trademarks are in different trademark classes. Their only mark in the same class as The Honest Toddler is HonestBaby, which they purchased from a mom blogger in 2012, but do not use in commerce. If searched, the link simply re-directs consumers to The Honest Company’s main page.
Myth: Consumers are confused by the similarities between The Honest Company and The Honest Toddler.
FACT: The Honest Company sells eco-friendly baby products. The Honest Toddler writes a hilarious blog about parenting. There is no evidence of consumer confusion. The public can easily differentiate between Ritz crackers and Ritz hotels and can also differentiate between The Honest Company and The Honest Toddler. The Honest Company was so impressed by The Honest Toddler, that they interviewed The Honest Toddler, praised her success, and posted the interview on their blog! The only thing that is confusing is why The Honest Company intentionally praised and publicized an alleged competitor that would lead to confusion.
<end of quote from Bunmi Laditan blog>Just read the response on HonestToddler.com (from Honest Company).
Honest Company sells baby products! Honest Toddler is using the name to sell a blog, a book and possibly a TV show. If Honest Toddler starts selling diapers or baby food then I can see a problem... but they aren't!
I'm still on Team Honest Toddler not the Company!
So shady.Reply
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