SCREWED THE POOCH

Supreme Court Rules Against Poop-Themed Dog Toy Maker

It sided with Jack Daniels, which said the bottle-shaped knockoff violated its trademark.

The U.S. Supreme Court decides lots of big issues: abortion, voting rights, executions. On Thursday, it weighed in on whether a dog toy manufacturer could sell a squeaky knockoff of a Jack Daniel’s whiskey bottle with a poop-theme. The toy features a label that looks like the one on the liquor bottle, but with the words “Bad Spaniels” and “The Old No. 2 on Your Tennessee Carpet.” The maker said it was a parody and thus exempt from trademark claims, but the high court did not see it that way. “The use of a mark does not count as noncommercial just because it parodies, or otherwise comments on, another’s products,” Justice Elana Kagan wrote.