We’re very proud to announce that Abnormal Use has once again been honored by the ABA Journal by being named to the Blawg 100, the annual list of top legal blogs in the country. Congratulations go out to our bloggers, Nick Farr, Rob Green, Kyle White,  Batten Farrar, Lindsay Joyner, Jessica Waller, and Janice Holmes, without whom this honor would not be possible. Mills Gallivan and Stuart Mauney also contributed posts this year. We are also thankful to our firm, Gallivan, White, & Boyd, P.A., for all of its support. Believe it or not, this is the fifth time in a row that our blog has been named by the ABA Journal to the Blawg 100, and as such, we are now in the ABA Journal’s Blawg Hall of Fame (along with 29 other stellar legal sites).

And, of course, we thank you, our dear readers, for coming to visit us here when you are able.

As they have done in past years, the ABA Journal is now asking its readers to pick their favorites of the blogs named to the Blawg 100. In light of that, we would humbly request that you support the blog and vote for it on the ABA Journal website. To do so, you first need to visit the ABA Journal website by going here:

http://www.abajournal.com/blawg100

You will be prompted to register with the site, a task which will only take a brief moment or two. To do so, click on the “Click here to register now!” link.

Once you register, you will be asked to “Click here to vote now in the Blawg 100.” Once you click on that link, you’ll be taken to the voting page.

Scroll down to and click on the “Tort/Consumer” category.  Therein, you’ll find our blog, and just click on the “Vote Now” button near the Abnormal Use entry and you’re done. It’s that simple.

Thanks again for all of your support. We very much appreciate it, and we’re looking forward to bringing you more material in the new year.

In full disclosure, we here at Abnormal Use have never tried Hampton Creek’s vegan mayo-like product, Just Mayo.  However, we can almost assuredly tell you that it, like many other vegan substitutes, doesn’t taste as good as the real thing.  Traditional mayonnaise is supposedly a rather simple condiment to make: oil, egg yolks, and vinegar or lemon juice.  However, the vegan wizards over at Hampton Creek have managed to remove eggs from the process by adding other ingredients including the delicious “pea protein” and ever vague “spices.”

Last month, Hellman’s owner, Unilever, brought suit against Hampton Creek for false advertising.  According to Hellman’s Hampton Creek’s Just Mayo is not mayonnaise at all because it doesn’t have eggs.  The FDA’s really specific and not that interesting definition of mayonnaise  requires “one or more of the egg yolk-containing ingredients.”  Further down, the regulation provides that the name of the food is “Mayonnaise.”  According to Unilever, Just Mayo does not taste or perform like real mayonnaise. (link)  Therefore, according to Unilever, Just Mayo is damaging the entire mayonnaise product category, has already caused consumer deception and serious irreparable harm, and is stealing market share from Hellman’s.

While the packaging does feature a picture of an egg on the bottle, it also provides that the product is egg free.  Just Mayo is not the only vegan spread to include the mayo name, and Hampton Creek’s CEO has stated that the name just rolls off the tongue.

While this lawsuit rages on, Unilever is apparently strengthening the egg-less mayo’s brand.  Hampton Creek claims that the lawsuit has given Just Mayo nearly $21 million dollars of free advertising in the first week alone.  We will openly admit that Hampton Creek’s product is not for us, but we can’t say that we are not curious.

For a more detailed review of the lawsuit and Unilever’s claims, check out One Green Planet’s article.  Given the name of the website, we would take the article with an organic grain of salt.

According to a report from Sports Illustrated, La Liga football club Valencia will abandon its new logo following an objection from DC Comics.  Last week, Valencia filed a trademark application for its re-designed bat logo.  DC Comics filed an objection to the application, claiming that the logo looked too similar to the crest of the Dark Knight himself.

As you can see, the two logos are similar in that they are both black in color and resemble a bat.  Beyond that, we here at Abnormal Use fail to see how the proposed logo will cause much confusion.  We seriously doubt the Valencia logo, with its soft lines and rounded ears, would strike much fear in Gotham’s criminals.  Certainly, even though the most amateur Batman fan could easily point out the differences.

An interesting component to this trademark suit is trying to decipher just which Batman logo Valencia is allegedly infringing. The Batman symbol has evolved over the years.  The comparison (shown above) used by Sports Illustrated and other media outlets reporting on the story compares the Valencia logo to the Dark Knight logo released in 2008.  Perhaps DC Comics’ complaints would make more sense had they focused on the logo from the 1999 “Batman Beyond” animated series:

At least with the 1999 logo, the wings are in the same position as that of the Valencia logo.  This trademark lawsuit would be one we could understand. In any event, Valencia has used a bat in its official team crest since 1922.  The City of Valencia has incorporated a bat in its coat of arms for even longer.  Batman didn’t emerge until 1939.  The bat logos for each have undergone a number of changes through the years, but for whatever reason, this is the first time DC Comics saw a problem.