After years of hearing from many of my colleagues that they had received cease and desist letters from Yankee Candle's lawyers, I felt rather discounted by the candle giant for omitting me. It felt kind of like they didn't consider me to be any competition I guess. But today, that all changed. It appears their attorney, Sarah Rollins, surfs the internet looking at candle sites for the sole purpose of picking up violators of the trademark laws. They're making way too much money if that's how they can best spend it.
But the good news is that Yankee is worried about the splash I am making in the candle market. I got my cease and desist letter today. It seems they a get a bit ticked if you use any of their trademarked fragrances like Christmas Eve, (I thought that belonged to all of us), Christmas Cookie, White Christmas, ( I thought that belonged to Irving Berlin), Mid Summer Night's Dream, etc.
Although I use many of their fragrances, White Christmas is the only one I use that I did not change the name. I call Mid Summer Night's Dream, Ladies Night Out (compare to Yankee Candle's Mid Summer Night's Dream), etc. So White Christmas is (was) my only violation of the trademark laws. I took it off the site today since I discontinued the fragrance 6 months ago.
I have no point to make here. I just figured most of you would find this an interesting read. I am sending their form back agreeing to cease and desist. I am also sending a letter thanking them for their vote of confidence in my company. (If I was making junk, they wouldn't have bothered.)
All in all, I am glad to finally get Yankee's admiration and it is fun knowing that I was the topic of conversation there, even if just briefly. I am now off the porch and officially "running with the big dogs."
I might also point out that since I make soy candles and Crankee makes only paraffin, I may not be in violation of their trademark. It would be costly to iron this out so I am content to continue to say "compare to Yankee Candle's whatever scent.