National Pork Board Takes Umbrage at “The New White Meat”

A website that specializes in geek gear has reportedly drawn the ire of the National Pork Board (NPB), which apparently sent the company a cease-and-desist letter for marketing unicorn pâté as “the other white meat.” ThinkGeek.com offered the fake product as an April Fool’s prank, but later received a 12-page legal missive claiming that advertisements for “Radiant Farms Canned Unicorn Meat” infringed and diluted the board’s trademark rights. “Laughs aside, the attorneys were doing their work that they do to protect the trademark,” an NPB spokesperson was quoted as saying.

Rather than oppose the cease-and-desist warning, ThinkGeek.com has since issued a public apology to NPB on the company blog. “It was never our intention to cause a national crisis and misguide American citizens regarding the differences between the pig and the unicorn,” stated Geeknet, Inc., CEO Scott Kaufman in a June 21, 2010, press release. “In fact, ThinkGeek’s canned unicorn meat is sparkly, a bit red, and not approved by any government entity.” See Meatingplace.com, June 22, 2010.