@planetdaddy: You are very incorrect.

But still ladies, after the first trademark infringement, you shoulda gotten better designers.

@midwestkel: For the others, the design is not being copied. The Idea might be, but you can't copyright a concept. I think it's probably somebody making the decision to mess with the guy who caught their copying and screw him.

I can't believe she doesn't have enough money to get so designers that are original and creative?

@silver-bolt: You are blind sir, and I hope you aren't an Alabama driver. They're bad enough with sight.

@coren: The phrasing has been used so much that he couldn't register it. But I think he's clearly established enough of a pattern for reasonable suspicion--that Pastry lifts its ideas from his line.

@Super1984: Super is right. The remaining shirts would be incredibly difficult to prove infringement. Not only are the sayings modified, as in the first, but the text is different, placement is different, graphics are different... Good luck to JC lawyers.

Air Jordan logo with a cupcake instead of a basketball
Batman Logo
A Christmas Story Leg Lamp
Many more over the years

What if Nike sued him for using the Air Jordan logo? The next article would be Nike sues little t-shirt company. So is it only ok to steal designs if you are smaller or have lesser known parents?

Johnny Cupcakes just irks me. $35 for a silkscreened t-shirt of a cupcake? Guess you have to pay for that Newbury Street store somehow. Should have stuck with On Broken Wings. That first album kills.

@silver-bolt: it's extremely similar font, and exact same placement and a ripoff of the cupcake logo. Couldn't they have used another style font? Like comic sans or something? But no, they go with the bubbly font that barely varies from the font the guy used on his t-shirt. The first shirt was copied without a doubt, the other two aren't that similar.

Sucks when all your R&D costs go down the toilet when someone else releases the "same" product two months after you do at a third of the cost.

"Support your local X." "X Shop." "X Store."

He might have been the first to come up with the cupcake theme, but let's face it - it was never that original an idea in the first place. Someone else was bound to stumble upon it, especially a couple of teenaged girls. He reminds me of when I was 15 and used to think I'd been robbed every time a song came on the radio with a hook I thought I created at the playground. Or how dismayed I used to be when someone else advertised my super original idea on a tv commercial.

Be more creative, then you'll have the proof to complain.

@Eldritch: Really? I love Threadless.

I think that the fact that all of the "pastry" shirts all use some kind of reword of the cupcake shirts is pretty damning. Stealing 1 idea is one thing, but ripping off every phrase? Maybe their fathers told them about the "Swap meets" that they used to rap about where you could get ripoff Gucci in 1980, and it inspired them to make their own swap meet ripoffs.

Looking closely, the "Make [X] Not War" shirts do not have the same font. However, they do have markedly similar fonts - to the point that they look the same at first (and even second) glance. The use of the Clip Art cupcake in the center of the "O" is particularly damning. So, I completely agree with the OP that this is copyright infringement (intentional or not).
However, the other two shirts bear only passing resemblences to one another. I have seen plenty of shirts and buttons that say "Support Your Local [X];" the concept has been around longer than Johnny's Cupcakes. As for the "Freshly Baked" vs. "Fresh Baked," again, I've seen this in far too many bakeries and restaurants to consider this an original idea. The shirts do not use similar design placement or font, and, given that both companies are themed around baked goods, I would actually expect to find this sort of similarity. So, I can't agree that the remaining two constitute copyright infringement.

Hey, but he's the one that said they are the same EXACT font.

On the 'Make Cupcakes Not War' shirts? They're not identical, but they're similar, absolutely. It's absurd to suggest otherwise.

The only thing similar is the cupcake in the middle. And that's as far as originality that the first shirt has.

The other two shirts? Rip-offs? Really?
Support you local X shop is about as original as a PTA flyer, or local small business council.

Freshly Baked is every baked item's slogan, like hot of the grill is every low-end chain restaurant's, or freshly squeezed is an ad for Orange Juice.

I'm under the impression both their and your lawyer agree you have no chance of winning a trademark or copyright suit. This is not like the Hottopic ones. These are neither blatant, or even similar.

i agree its the cupcake in the o, and furthermore I really dont think a cupcake qualifies as a pastry.
pas·try (pstr)
n. pl. pas·tries
1. Dough or paste consisting primarily of flour, water, and shortening that is baked and often used as a crust for foods such as pies and tarts.
2.
a. Baked sweet foods made with pastry: Viennese pastry.
b. One of these baked foods.

Diversity is so much more starkly obvious when the diverse groups never mix.

WELCOME TO NEW JERSEY
now go home

To claim trademark on something so obvious and common is absurd. It's not a stretch to see how two people could arrive at a similar idea using such a common phrase.

Now, if there are web server logs that show that the Pastry company was accessing Johnny Cupcakes' webserver than there might, MIGHT be room to talk.

Otherwise, pfffft.

What is it with this industry?

Fair Use would be selling an MP3 player and your commercial uses a 30 second clip of some popular song.

but damn... she should get sued

@jamesmusik: until someone makes money off of your ideas

Idiots.

Here's a t-shirt idea:

"The T-shirt Business: Foolish"

I own a skateboard company so I deal with artwork issues quite frequently, and I believe this one might fall under the fair use doctrine.

I could be incorrect, and if so it wouldn't be the first time I misunderstood the law.

And no, imitation by taking your concepts and repackaging them for mass production is not the highest form of flattery.

So is Johnny Cupcake ripping off someone else with his "support your local" whatever? Cuz that phrase has been around for ages on shirts, and he certainly didn't originate it.

I suggest you not underestimate the staggering drawing power of the Garden State, and show up two hours in advance.

And yes, I wear it in public.

Is there some weird 3rd dimension in clothing where people can freely rip off other people's designs? This stuff would never fly in other industries.

Too bad it's clear they can't copy their way into a better design. The last 2 purported ripoffs look awful.

Still, they're sort of similar but not really. The first ones for sure. But the last 2, very very different executions of somewhat similar ideas.

@Super1984: Yeah. Sounds like they're making a passive-aggressive war, maybe. Why do I feel like pastry all of a sudden?

The first one's obviously infringement, but the other two, aside from some words are not at all similar. Moreover, the words they used are so generic they can't be trademarked. Sure, the girls could be more creative, but imitation IS the highest form of flattery.