8. Aunt Jemima led to a landmark decision in trademark law in 1915
By the time Davis Mills changed its name to Aunt Jemima Mills, the character was so popular that similar images and characters based on Aunt Jemima marketed numerous products. One company went too far, in the minds of Aunt Jemima executives. The company, doing business as Rigney and Company, manufactured and marketed pancake syrup. According to its label, it was made from “Rock Candy Drippings and Maple Syrup” by the company in Brooklyn, New York. The label included the image of Aunt Jemima and the name of the product, “Aunt Jemima’s Pancake Syrup”, claiming it as a registered trademark. Aunt Jemima Mills took umbrage at the impertinence.
For one thing, as they alleged in the court documents, the syrup from Brooklyn was an inferior product and could cause customers to infer the same of their pancake flour. Rigney and Company countered that Aunt Jemima Mills did not make syrup, so there was no infringement. The judge agreed that syrup and pancake mix are not competing products, but the Brooklyn company’s use of the label and name “has created in the minds of purchasers the belief that the said goods are a product of the plaintiff”. It entered American law as the Aunt Jemima Doctrine. Other lawsuits involving Aunt Jemima and trademark infringements followed but somewhat surprisingly, Aunt Jemima did not enter the syrup business for another fifty years.
