July 26th, 2012 / 2:05 pm
 Behind the Scenes

Jack Daniel’s is nice

If you haven’t heard about the recent cease-and-desist letter sent by Jack Daniel’s to indie press author Patrick Wensink, over his book’s cover’s use of a parody of the JD bottle label, which then caught fire in the press everywhere from beer magazines to the New York Times, and amazingly catapulted the book in question, Broken Piano for President, to the top 10 bestsellers on Amazon, right behind 50 Shades of Gray and all, well, it’s a pretty awesome thing.

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11 Comments

  1. July 26th, 2012 / 2:28 pm Scott Riley Irvine—

      Most reasonable reaction to intellectual property dispute. 

  2. July 26th, 2012 / 2:45 pm Arthur Guess—

      I like how Cristy signs her name in all caps.

  3. July 26th, 2012 / 2:53 pm Trey—

      got a legit warm feeling

  4. July 26th, 2012 / 5:08 pm Michael—

      Jack Daniel’s should start a branded publishing house for indie authors, similar to the Converse studio thing.

  5. July 26th, 2012 / 5:32 pm Erik Stinson—

      #coolnewPRoptions

  6. July 26th, 2012 / 7:41 pm reynard—

      my cousin is a pro golfer & these guys gave him like a pallet of whiskey once, a bottle of which went to me which was cool (they were the big’uns – i think i killed something); this is good news, hopefully patrick got some free hooch out of this as well, this being one of those many moments proving that crime actually does pay, because god is a little lioness we put in a leather harness

  7. July 26th, 2012 / 8:38 pm Richard Grayson—

      As a lawyer, I have to tell you that whether you get results or not, if you represent a trademark holder, and you see anything remotely challenging your client’s mark, if you *don’t* send out a cease-and-desist letter, you can get sued for malpractice.  As far as in-house attorneys, they too must “police their mark” for a variety of reasons.  This letter is standard, just a lot nicer than usual pro forma. 

      If company counsel ignored any possible weakening of the mark, she would be derelict in her duty and incompetent.  I know lawyers who send them out to publications that use their client’s or company’s mark in a way that they know is trivial — as in the text “She xeroxed his letter”; however, but failing to send a cease-and-desist can result in real trouble down the road when a much more serious breach by another party occurs.

  8. July 26th, 2012 / 11:25 pm tombradleydotorg—

      “George, Jr.” gave me my first online publication. What a great magazine that was! I always wondered if John-John killed it. 

  9. July 28th, 2012 / 4:39 pm Timmy Reed—

      The skateshop near my house in Baltimore uses a JD-style logo as the art on a model of their shop board. I have one. I don’t thenk they ever got a letter though. Does this prove once and for all that indie-lit is more popular than skateboarding? No, I guess not. Shucks. I thought I had a good one. My logic always fails me.

  10. August 1st, 2012 / 4:12 am Episode 92 — Patrick Wensink | Other People with Brad Listi—

      […] for President, is now available from Lazy Fascist Press. It recently incited an unusually kind cease-and-desist letter from Jack Daniel’s, […]

  11. August 24th, 2012 / 9:48 am Class Act Patrick Wensink | Joshua Flenniken—

      […] very subtly “borrowed” the Jack Daniels label. Patrick received what is being touted as “the most polite cease and desist letter in history” from the Jack Daniels corporation. They essentially said that they were flattered but that it was […]