KFC vs The English Language

On 10th May, BBC news reported that KFC had threatened a North Yorks country pub, The Tan Hill Inn, over the use of the phrase A Christmas Day Family feast. KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) claimed to have registered/copyrighted the phrase "family feast" as a trademark. Last time I dealt with the folks at the UK copyright office, I was told that you can't copyright or trademark a two word English phrase unless it is a novel construction unlikely to occur in everyday English* "Family feast" is hardly a novel construction. You can wordmark it, in which case the trademark covers the style, font and colour and not just the word(s).

KFC sent a letter to the pub telling them to remove the words from the menu. Presumably the big corporation expected the pub to comply. When the pub refused, KFC said the case was in the hands of their lawyers.

In a climbdown hours later, a KFC spokesman claimed the situation had been blown out of proportion and that the case would not be pursued "They have very kindly said we can continue using the name." How kind, considering the phrase is part of everyday English and KFC don't own it outside of the context of their own menus.

A KFC spokeswoman for said "KFC has to protect its trademarks against those who seek to trade off its brand" though I can't see how an all-day spread including traditional pies has any link to cheap fried chicken. I'm guessing KFC weren't prepared for the negative publicity and their legal team realised that the common phrase "family feast" wasn't invented by them.

Brits don't like big USAnian corporations throwing their weight around and trying to copyright chunks of our language then telling us we can't use our own everyday phrases ("family feast" is in the 1959 Oxford dictionary). It's the linguistic equivalent of displacing native peoples by telling them they don't own the land they've lived on since before the latecomer European colonists turned up.

*Something a certain USAnian cat association is trying to do by sticking the word "traditional" in front of a bunch of well-known breednames and relying on the fact other people who talk about the traditional style of those breeds can't afford expensive lawyers even though the UK copyright office have said the phrases aren't novel enough to be copyrighted in the UK.