Ruth Madoff, the wife of Bernie Madoff, has received some attention for a cookbook she co-authored in 1996, The Great Chefs of America Cook Kosher. The NY Times reported that she didn’t write the cookbook or even cook any of recipes and John Shoup, the CEO of Great Chefs Television, the company that has produced Great Chefs cooking shows and cookbooks, alleged that Madoff “stole the title using our registered trademark ‘Great Chefs’. We ultimately got a cease and desist and they agreed not to reprint the bloody book.” He also wrote that “[t]hat family evidently has some flawed morals.”
Shoup’s company, Great Chefs Television, does indeed have a registered trademark of GREAT CHEFS on the Patent and Trademark Office’s Principal Register, which serves as constructive notice to all those who might use the same mark. Shoup’s allegations of Madoff’s moral failings, however, are excessive in light of the the fact that an author ordinarily might not believe that the use of “Great Chefs” in a cookbook title would be trademark infringement. Here’s why: