Anchorage Daily News

WASILLA - Got breast milk?If so, don't brag about it.

The California Milk Processor Board might put you on notice too.

Talkeetna batik artist Barbara Holmes heard from the group behind the "got milk?" brand this month.

Holmes made the mistake of advertising T-shirts and "onesies" - those snappable one-piece underclothes for babies - hand-lettered with the words "got breastmilk?"

She whipped up 10 of the little things from her downtown Talkeetna home with an outhouse and no running water. She sold six at a holiday fair in the senior center two years ago, then moved on to other projects.

The letter from the board's Sacramento law firm showed up a few weeks ago.

The milk board, which represents 11 dairy processors who banded together in 1993 to market milk, doesn't take kindly to people trafficking in the trademarked "got milk" brand.

Mountntop Designs & Baby Bugs Clothing, be warned, the July 8 letter states.

Federal law says trademark infringement happens when confusion is likely caused by use of a word or phrase.

"The phrases 'got breastmilk' and 'got milk?' are similar except for the addition of the word 'breast,'" the lawyers wrote. "This difference is not enough to eliminate the likelihood that consumers will be confused about the origin of the products."

DIFFERENT CONTAINERS

People could think maybe the California Milk Processors Board is behind the "got breastmilk" T-shirts and onesies, the letter stated. Both slogans do involve types of milk.

That's just ridiculous, Holmes said in a telephone interview this week. Her creations were clearly a parody of the real thing.

"They say I'm going to confuse milk consumers," she said.

"How can you get confused between a boob and a bottle of milk from the store? They're two different kind of jugs."

Still, the 33-year-old mother of two is treating the letter seriously. She got a lawyer, the first and probably only one she saw in the book, Talkeetna attorney Paul Bratton. He sent a letter on Monday defending Holmes as a pro-nursing advocate trying to get the message out. Holmes also said he told her parody is protected under the free speech provisions of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The board's law firm, Knox, Lemmon & Anapolsky, did not return calls for comment. A representative of the board could not be reached.

In the letter, signed by attorney Stephen J. Byers, the firm demands Holmes cease all sales and marketing, and ship no later than this week, all the T-shirts, onesies and equipment used to make them, as well as an accounting of any profits, "to avoid resorting to litigation."

Holmes said the group is getting "nothing but a letter from my lawyer."

Holmes said before she publicized her "got breastmilk" products, she did a quick scan on the Internet and found plenty of others already using just that slogan.

The milk processors board understandably keeps an eye out for potential trademark infringement.

The lawyers put People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals on notice last year after the group twisted the "got milk?" slogan into an anti-milk campaign, according to an Associated Press story. The story noted that the board typically laughed off spoofs of the brand, such as "got fleas?"

NOT THE FIRST

But Portland writer and mother Ariel Gore got a letter from the board's attorneys over her use of the "Got Breast Milk" slogan on T-shirts and tank tops, according to a January post on her blog.

Gore's response letter argued that "no reasonable person would be confused by the parody," instructed the attorneys that she never profited from the clothes, and recommended a book about using free markets to help the poor.

Holmes e-mailed Gore to see what happened next. The Oregon woman never heard back.

Holmes hopes her problem blows over too.

Even though she now lives in a relatively modern spread about five miles from Talkeetna, with running water, she said she remains a "small time" target who works from her kitchen rather than a studio and long ago stopped making the shirts at issue.

"It's silly, but scary at the same time," she said.

"Because they're a big ... they could go after me if they want to. I don't feel that they have a case. I don't know what the outcome will be when they see my letter."

Find Zaz Hollander online at adn.com/contact/zhollander or call 907-352-6711.

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