hings are heating up on TikTok this week as we see another IP showdown between brands. The newest dispute involves Meredith Hayden, a content creator and founder of Wishbone Kitchen, which started as a private chef and catering business, who called out Condé Nast subsidiary, Bon Appétit over its new online series, which features the same name as Hayden’s.
As part of the Wishbone Kitchen catalogue, which until recently was easily recognized by its pink and red branding, Hayden launched a YouTube series in January 2024 called Dinner with Friends. The online series chronicles Hayden demonstrating her recipes and offering dinner party hosting tips. Since the launch of her series, Hayden has posted 12 videos to her YouTube channel, all of which have amassed from 37K to 206K views. Furthering her thoughtful approach to creating intimacy among her audience, Hayden created a Substack, a popular online platform that allows writers, journalists, content creators to publish newsletters to their audience directly, called The Group Chat. In The Group Chat, Hayden shares details about the menus from her Dinner with Friends series as well as what she is cooking, eating, and drinking in a personal manner with her audience—creating an illusion of being in a group chat with Hayden.
Last week on Instagram, Bon Appétit posted about its new online series called Dinner with Friends, where the host throws real get-togethers and provides viewers with hosting tips like how to curate menus and other party-prep tricks. Notably, the post’s caption ends with: “Head to the link in bio for Kendra’s menu, then get on the groupchat to see who’s free Friday night. You’re hosting, right?”
While Hayden (who has 2.3 million followers on TikTok and 1.3 followers on Instagram, one of which is Bon Appétit) concedes in a TikTok posted to her account that Dinner with Friends is certainly “not a revolutionary title,” both she and the rest of the internet find it problematic that Bon Appétit has not only used her series title, but also her pink and red branding, which she has used up until recently. And Bon Appétit’s reference to a group chat was all the evidence the internet needed to take it upon themselves to demand Bon Appétit to change their branding and tagline for their new dinner series. Despite the flood of angry comments on Bon Appétit’s Instagram, Bon Appétit has chosen to stand firmly in their decision, writing in part that “‘Dinner with Friends’ is a common phrase—one our brands have used over many years—and we believe there’s room for multiple ways to engage with it.” Unsurprisingly, the internet is accusing Bon Appétit of “stealing” Hayden’s ideas and demanding they “explain the vivid similarity in graphic branding.”
However, what the internet is not acknowledging is that there is a third party, who does not appear to be affiliated with either Hayden or Bon Appétit, with a registered trademark of Dinner with Friends (Serial no: 98256643) in class 41 for arranging, organizing, conducting, and hosting social entertainment events. This trademark was filed in November 2023, which is interesting as Hayden claims that she started her YouTube Series in January 2024. Ironically, this means that both Hayen and Bon Appétit are infringing the mark owner’s rights, which are being diluted due to a lack of enforcement.
This scenario speaks to a larger issue concerning how IP disputes on the internet are handled, which are often fueled with misinformation, yet have very real ramifications. These ramifications can manifest in brands having to defend themselves, as we saw here with Bon Appétit’s pinned Instagram comment on their post. Here, the social media vigilantism, while led in good faith, was founded on misinformation and with the general facts lost in translation. It further touches on the importance for a trademark owner to enforce and police their trademark otherwise, they inevitably face dilution. Here at CDAS, we always encourage our clients to run trademark clearance searches before starting any new ventures—whether that be a new business or branding campaign—to avoid situations like these.