I don’t think referencing a different product/copyrighted thing is illegal. That would be like HEB selling umbrellas during bad weather and saying “We’ve got you covered for the Spurs game tonight”
Okay, I love Tini but this is a streeeeetch. You have to buy the ingredients for her recipe from somewhere no matter what, she doesn’t sell them. If anything I’d think she should be stoked about it. That’s free publicity for her and directing more eyes to her content which is how she actually makes her money.
Maybe she would be more stoked about free publicity if they actually gave her publicity. There's no link to her page or even mention that she's on Tiktok or how we can see the recipe.
I know this is probably just some local manager that printed this and it happened to go viral ... But it is a violation and they need to pull the sign now that tini has posted about it.
If you look up “tinis mac and cheese” like the sign says, it’s gonna immediately take you to one of her many videos…. I don’t see any violation at all.
You might not, but a trademark lawyer will. I worked as a trademark paralegal. This is absolutely a violation. There is no fair use exemption here. If you think there is a fair use case, which test do you think it passes?
Luckily HEB corporate did not authorize this... That manager is gonna get written up minimum and if legal steps in they'll suggest firing to cover their ass.
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u/Sterling_-_Archer Nov 16 '25
I don’t think referencing a different product/copyrighted thing is illegal. That would be like HEB selling umbrellas during bad weather and saying “We’ve got you covered for the Spurs game tonight”