Complicated Potatoes?

Complicated potato or: “Spud you’re an unprincipled man!”

The all powerful Idaho Potato Commission is proving to be surprisingly thin skinned.They do have a long history of jealously guarding the Idaho potato brand from unauthorized use . A Boise restaurant named The Idaho Fry Company after receiving a cease and desist order is being forced to rethink their restaurant name. The problem began when they fell under the eyes of the Potato Commission .The unauthorized use of “Idaho Potato” is the root of the problem. Here is all the dirt I could dig up on this hot potato issue.................

The Idaho Fry Company, which opened earlier this year, was told by the IPC that the name violated rights held by the commission that prevent any unauthorized use of “Idaho Potato” and any similar construction to potatoes by outside companies or entities.
“The situation is, we have a federal certification mark for Idaho and all potato products,” said Frank Muir, president and chief executive officer of the IPC. “It’s been an ongoing rule since the IPC formed around 70 years ago. In order to keep that mark, we have to show we’re willing to protect it.”
Muir added that french fries fall under that certification mark.
Muir said the IPC offered to license the certification mark to the restaurant for $100 per year, along with an agreement that the restaurant use exclusively Idaho-grown potatoes, but the owners of the establishment refused.

One of the restaurant’s co-owners refuted that claim.“That’s not it at all,” said Blake Lingle, who owns the Fry Company with partner Riley Huddleston. “The only thing they offered was that we had to change the name to ‘The Fry Company Featuring Idaho Potatoes,’ or something like that.”
“We didn’t take it,” Lingle said. “They had a lot of strings attached. Another thing is, the IPC is a tax-supported organization, and we didn’t feel right taking tax payers’ money for a private for-profit venture.”
Though the restaurant’s owners already have been issued a cease and desist order from the state, Muir said the IPC has given Lingle and Huddleston until August to change the name.
“Unless IPC changes their mind, we unfortunately can’t afford to go to court and try this,” Lingle said. “We’re going to have to change the name.”