Update: Boise BBQ Fight is Headed to Court

It might be the most delicious fight to ever happen in Boise but unfortunately, it isn't about BBQ at all. It's much more serious than that.

Plagiarism is no joke. We definitely know that in the media business and know how to give credit where it's due. We also teach our children to be original and not to copy others, but what would you do if you woke up one day and realized that your work was being copied by a huge corporation? We told you about this story last month about how it recently happened to a Boise business owner BBQ4life.

In an exclusive story, Boisedev reported in February that locally owned BBQ4Life, located at 930 S Vista Avenue in Boise was batting head-to-head with the corporate office of Dickey's Barbecue over rights to a logo. The owner of BBQ4life Brad Taylor, not only calls his establishment, BBQ for life, but he actually has it tattooed on his knuckles. Oh and in addition to the tattoos, if that wasn't enough, he also has a beard and wears sunglasses, just the same as what is seen in a competitors marketing bags.

It's the same image of tattooed knuckles that Dickey's BBQ had been using to market their BBQ. What came first the Knuckle tattoo or the Dickey's advertising? That is the question.

Credit: Screenshot of BBQ4life Facebook Page Screenshot

So you could imagine Taylor's obvious surprise when he started seeing near-identical image promoted by Dickey's, a national BBQ chain, last year.

He worked with lawyers to issue a cease and desist order against Dickey's. Unfortunately, Taylor did not originally trademark the logo when he opened his business due to lack of resources but has decided to do so now.

Dickey's did release this statement last month: "At Dickey’s, our franchisees are local business owners and we consider them a part of our extended family.  As such, we support and respect other hard-working local business owners who are passionate about great barbecue. Dickey’s believes in authentic barbecue and healthy competition and never intended to cause confusion nor upset within the barbecue community. Dickey’s is in the process of changing out stock of our takeout bags at all Dickey’s stores in the Boise market and beyond. We look forward to serving our loyal guest delicious barbecue in less confusing takeout bags."

So all's well that ends well right?  Dicky's did the right thing and Taylor gets to exclusively use his marketing knuckles. Well not so fast.

In an article printed in the Idaho Statesman, it looks like BBQ4life will have to take Dickey's to court to get them to finally cease and desist once and for all.

The owner of BBQ4life, Brad Taylor and his attorneys filed the lawsuit against the Texas-based national barbecue chain in U.S. District Court last month.

Now it looks like the most delicious BBQ fight in Idaho history will be fought in court and not on a plate where it belongs.

I totally wish we could take this to a BBQ battle winner take all. Best BBQ gets to use the BBQ4life logo, but I know this is way too important to risk on a BBQ taste test, so we will wait to see who wins and who loses in the court of public opinion and in the court system. Meanwhile, we all get to enjoy BBQ for Life.

Credit: BBQf4life, https://www.facebook.com/bbq4lifeboise/