The Ice Cream Truck Jingle Lawsuit

You’ve heard the jingle. If you’ve ever grown up in an area where the ice cream truck rolls by in the summer, you know the Mister Softee ice cream truck jingle. It’s iconic.

The jingle, much like Mister Softee himself, has been around 1956. It was trademarked in 1960. But now, the jingle is embroiled in a legal controversy. And that is not cool.

Mister Softee (well, the guy who owns Mister Softee) is suing a rival ice cream truck for allegedly stealing that trademarked jingle. Mister Softee says the Brooklyn, New York-based ice cream truck is using the Mister Softee jingle to peddle its own ice cream. The lawsuit filed Mister Softee earlier this month alleges trademark infringement.

Ice cream is about fun. Yet, Mister Softee sees no good humor in this ice cream truck jingle affair. When ice cream trucks move from the city streets and quiet neighborhoods into a courtroom, we all lose.

In one video, a driver for the Brooklyn business says this ice cream trade is “cutthroat” and that there is only room for one ice cream truck at a prime location.

Yikes, this ice cream truck stuff sounds like serious business. Mister Softee says it owns a federal trademark on the ice cream jingle and that only Mister Softee franchises are permitted to use the song, according to the company’s attorney.

This is too much legal talk. Let’s get the focus back to ice cream.