Eleven years ago, a farmer friend asked Montpelier folk artist Bo Muller-Moore to make a T-shirt for him that read “Eat More Kale.” So, Muller-Moore went home, traced his fingers to make cutouts of the letters and printed the T-shirt, which he sold for $10. The logo took off, and a business was born.

Six years later, the legal department of Atlanta-based fast food giant Chick fil-A sent Muller-Moore a cease-and-desist order requesting “that I shut down my website and send them my inventory,” says Muller-Moore. “They said I was confusing their customers and affecting their profits.” Specifically, Chick fil-A was concerned with how eatmorekale.com conflicted with their marketing slogan and website, eatmorchikin.com.

Through a lawyer, Muller-Moore informed the company that he intended to continue, and took their ensuing silence to mean they were backing down. He kept making T-shirts and bumper stickers, his website stayed up, and business grew. This August, he decided to seek a federal trademark for “Eat More Kale.” And in September, he experienced some déjà vu: Chick fil-A sent Muller-Moore another cease and desist letter, and also demanded that he withdraw his application for a federal trademark.

Chick fil-A has more than 1,560 locations nationwide and 2010 sales of $3.58 billion. As its website notes, the company sells 537 Chick fil-A sandwiches per minute, and its longstanding policy of closing every restaurant on Sunday is a testament to founder Truett Cathy’s “faith in God.”

By contrast, EatMoreKale.com sells markedly fewer t-shirts per year, though Muller-Moore shies from discussing numbers. He has given away 40,000 to 60,000 “Eat More Kale” stickers, and now sells them for donations via his website. 

Muller-Moore is no stranger to copyright infringement. Over the years, he has encountered nine people trying to co-opt his folksy logo. So, seeking a federal trademark seemed an important step to take. “I needed a sharper sword than common law trademark,” he says.

Understandably, Muller-Moore is puzzled that Chick fil-A sees his T-shirt business as a threat to their corporation. “This is legitimate David-versus-Goliath corporate bullying,” says Muller-Moore. “I’m not a restaurant. I’m not a kale farmer. I’m a T-shirt artist.” Muller-Moore says he has never made enough money on the emblem to support himself, though he is hopeful he might do so one day.

Muller-Moore’s lawyer, Dan Richardson of Montpelier, notes that Chick fil-A has consistently tried to shut down businesses using a similar moniker. “What they’re trying to do is own the marketplace. They’ve aggressively gone after anyone who has used the phrase ‘eat more anything,'” says Richardson. He notes the case has whiffs of Monster Energy Drink’s efforts to block Rock Art Brewery’s Vermonster beer in 2009.

On Saturday, an acquaintance of Muller-Moore’s set up a petition online to support Eat More Kale. By Monday, it had registered more than 600 signatures. 

Calls to Chick fil-A’s legal and corporate departments were not answered by press time. 

This article has been corrected to reflect the correct nature of Chick fil-A’s letter to Muller-Moore.

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This article appears in Nov 16-22, 2011.

Corin Hirsch was a Seven Days food writer 2011 through 2016. She was also a dining critic and drinks columnist at Newsday from 2017 to 2022, and contributes to The Guardian, Wine Enthusiast and other publications. She’s spoken often on colonial era drinking and is the author of Forgotten Drinks of Colonial New England, published by History Press in 2014.

24 replies on “Chick fil-A Files to Block ‘Eat More Kale’ From Becoming Federal Trademark”

  3. This is insane! "Eat more" is a common phrase in the English language. Eat more veggies, eat more fruit, eat more fish, eat more _ _ _ _ (fill in the blank) whatever. How dare a greedy corporation to try and restrict the First Amendment rights of all Americans through the trademarking/copyrighting of a common phrase. It's not like this guy is silk-screening his shirts with the phrase "eat more chicken" which would be very similar to Chick-fil-A's "eat mor chikin."
    I'm sick and tired of corporate greed and bullying. This attempt to diminish our First Amendment rights is wayyyyyy over the top.
    BOYCOTT CHICK-FIL-A!

  4. Dead Chicken Meat 'n' Kale
    Was curious ‘bout this thing
    called a “yard-bird” snack,
    So, I hauled myself down to
    some fowl-death shack
    and asked about
    a chicky-chick sand-a-wich.
    The counter dog sez:
    “Their cackle on a bun is boss,
    But we won't serve no
    cabbage in sauce.
    For that, you have to see
    the Colonel or
    go to Montpelier.”
    (Hmmmm?)
    He adds: “there's a man up there
    selling printed underwear,
    He's sorta pale and pushin'
    a cabbage called kale—
    And he's flat-out a-ruinin' the
    dead-chicken-meat reputation.”
    I can't figure how a dude with
    a simple squeegee–press
    puts a charred flesh-peddler
    In any distress (?)
    After all, a pro-veggie T-shirt's
    just a shirt,
    But hawkin' burnt chicken parts
    can't get any more disgusting.

    Lefty Farkleberry
    from: “Wrasslin' Bear Cubs…..III
    Copyright 2k11
    Canyon Wren Press

  5. How about "Eat More Chickale" oooh, I like it, think i'll go online and order me a chickale sandwich, bumper sticker and t-shirt.

  6. An instance of a large company overreaching on an intellectual property issue is hardly "really about the battle between large corporations and the majority of Americans who are just trying to make ends meet." Nor is it fair to generalize from this one instance about "corporate greed and injustice."
    Engage in exaggerated rhetoric much?

  7. Don't bother arguing with Fiske. After reading his response to the post about the Intervale, I can't tell whether he really believes what he writes or is just stirring the pot.

  8. Maybe I'm biased, because I know Bo personally and I do love kale, but I honestly don't think this has anything to do with an anti-meat agenda. Plenty of Vermonters eat meat, and I am one of them. This is really about the battle between large corporations and the majority of Americans who are just trying to make ends meet. Given the current state of affairs in this country, we need to pay attention to cases like this, now more than ever. This is not the time to quibble over minor editorial details or agendas. This is the time to rally and stand up for ourselves and speak out against corporate greed and injustice. Bo, I say, go get em, (AU) Tiger!

  9. I am so tired of Vermonters and their anti-meat agenda. Listen, you can't survive on weeds and twigs alone.
    If God didn't want us to eat cows and chickens he wouldn't have made them so tasty and delicious. Instead, he would've made them taste all bitter and disgusting like kale.

  10. I am actually wearing my EAT MORE KALE shirt as I read this! Geez- do they really think that anyone interested in eating more kale is even going to consider eating more chik-fla?

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