The beer nerds among us understand the implications of a trademark.
“Steam” beer is a style of beer associated with San Francisco, but Anchor Brewing Company owns the trademark, and so the rest of us refer to “California Common” and mean exactly the same thing.
Accordingly, in an effort to answer a question we received in the run-up to this year’s Kentucky Derby, a chocolate nut pie made with pecans (or maybe walnuts) and bourbon (or not) can be referred to in a variety of ways, just not as Derby-Pie , which is a registered trademark of Kern’s Kitchen (they offer other baked goods, too).
Wikipedia explains the pie’s origins.
Derby Pie was created in 1950 by the Melrose Inn in Prospect, Kentucky as a specialty pastry. The restaurant’s owners and derby pie creators were Walter and Leaudra Kern, who constantly researched the optimal recipe for their creation. They were assisted by their son George Kern. The name “derby pie” was chosen because the various family members each had a different name for the creation, so to resolve the naming quandary they put the various names in a hat, and pulled out the paper which said “derby pie”. The name “derby pie”...Read more
