High-Stakes POG Battle Will Be Settled in Court : Ruling: For now, a Huntington Beach firm is ordered to change its name.
A Huntington Beach company was barred Thursday from using the word “POG” to market milk caps related to the wildly popular children’s game--at least until a legal battle over the name goes to trial this fall.
The ruling was hailed as a victory by the Costa Mesa-based World POG Federation, which was sued last month by rival Universal Pogs Assn. Inc. But the case is far from over in the high-stakes dispute involving the game played with decorated silver-dollar-size disks.
As part of the ruling, Orange County Superior Court Commissioner Jane D. Myers ordered World POG Federation to post a $350,000 bond by 4 p.m. today. That money would compensate Universal Pogs for any business losses in the coming weeks if the company prevails during the November trial.
But World POG Federation President Alan Rypinski said Thursday he is confident his company, which claims exclusive rights to the name, will win the trial and said he believes the bond amount is excessive. His attorneys had suggested putting up $15,000, while Universal sought $1.3 million.
“Coke, Kleenex, Q-Tip and Scrabble all faced similar challenges, and each of them successfully defended their trademark rights,” Rypinski said in a release. “We will, too. I guess it comes with the turf.”
Robert B. Rosenstein, an attorney representing Universal Pogs, expressed disappointment with the ruling and said the company will change its name for the time being. The new name had not been determined Thursday.
Rosenstein said he remains confident the company will prove the name POG is so commonly used that it should be fair game for anyone to use commercially.
“What we were faced with is overcoming the presumption that (POG) is not generic,” he said.
The legal dispute between the Orange County companies began last month and is being watched closely by other manufacturers and retailers in a fast-growing industry some have predicted could generate a billion dollars this year alone. World POG Federation estimates 2 billion milk caps were sold in Hawaii alone over an 18-month period in late 1992 and early 1993.
In its suit, the Universal Pogs Assn. Inc. is disputing the World POG Federation’s claims of exclusive rights to the name. The federation has countersued, seeking a permanent order barring Universal Pogs from using the name.
Joe Kaufenberg, the owner of Universal Pogs, has vowed to take the battle to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary.
The game itself is simple and played much like marbles, but with plastic and cardboard disks, similar to the flat circles once used to seal glass milk bottles.
Players hurl a heavier plastic disk known as a “slammer” or “kini” onto a stack of the cardboard caps. The trick is to flip the caps over by hitting them. Rules vary, with children playing for points or to keep the caps they successfully flip. Children also collect the disks, which are decorated with various logos, sayings, personalities and characters.
The game has its roots in the Great Depression, when a similar game of milk caps became popular among children. More recently, the game was revived in Hawaii when a teacher at an Oahu elementary school rounded up milk covers from a dairy and introduced the game to her students. A favorite cover of the children was from a Haleakala Dairy drink called POG, which stands for passion fruit, orange and guava.
Rypinski, who developed the Armor-All brand of car-care goods, said he competed against others and obtained in September, 1993, all rights to the POG brand name from the Haleakala Dairy for the game, as well as the fruit drink.
