Source: Susan Kelly, MEATINGPLACE, 2/2/18



The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has ordered an end to payments from the National Pork Board to the National Pork Producers Council for purchase of trademarks on the "Pork: The Other White Meat" brand campaign, in a case brought by the Humane Society of the United States.

The National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) sold the trademarks to the National Pork Board for $35 million in 2006.
HSUS and other plaintiffs argued that the trademarks were sold for an inflated price.

USDA, which authorized the transaction as part of its oversight responsibilities under the 1985 Pork Act, had sought to have the lawsuit dismissed. The Pork Act set up the pork checkoff program and established the National Pork Board to administer it.
USDA argued that the plaintiffs failed show they were harmed by the sale of the trademarks, and that the agency’s evaluation of the sale of the trademarks showed they provided significant value to the pork industry.

“We are conducting a thorough review of the decision and evaluating our options,” NPPC President Ken Maschhoff said in a statement. “We are disappointed that the court partially denied the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s motion to dismiss this frivolous lawsuit, one that was never based on a legitimate legal challenge to a federally approved transaction but instead was brought by an anti-meat activist group intent on eliminating meat consumption.”