Popular restaurant chain International House of Pancakes (IHOP) is suing a Christian prayer group called the International House of Prayer for using their copyrighted acronym to promote its religious activities. The restaurant’s lawyers released a statement saying the group “intended to misappropriate the fame and notoriety of the household name IHOP to help promote and make recognizable their religious organization.” A spokesperson said the chain repeatedly requested that the prayer group stop using the acronym and was forced to take legal action when the requests went ignored. According to a CNN article, representatives from the International House of Prayer have not yet responded to the lawsuit. Legal experts, as cited in the International Business Times, said the restaurant chain could win the lawsuit if they can establish that the church group’s use of the acronym proves confusing to the public as to the relationship between the restaurant chain and the group, or if the use of the acronym somehow decreases the value of or negatively affects the reputation of the restaurant chain.
