Cupcake firms in not-so-sweet trademark dispute

A cupcake company is suing a rival firm in a trademark dispute over its name.

Sprinkles Cupcakes, which has a flagship store on Santa Monica Boulevard in Beverly Hills, has filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against Connecticut-based bake shop Pink Sprinkles.

The suit claims the similarity in names could cause confusion in the marketplace.

Sprinkles opened its Beverly Hills location in 2005 and has others in New York, Dallas, Houston, and Scottsdale, Arizona. Pink Sprinkles opened in 2009 and calls itself “Fairfield’s first cupcake boutique.”

ABC 7 quotes part of the lawsuit as calling the dispute “an exceptional case, involving calculated and willful misconduct.”

Sprinkles is owned by Charles and Candace Nelson. Mrs. Nelson is a judge on a Food Network reality television show called, perhaps rather aptly, “Cupcake Wars.”

Mr. Nelson was quoted by Boston.com as saying:  “It’s not about competition. It’s just about our name.”