Thursday, September 16, 2010

IHOP SUES IHOP
Pancakes or Prayer?

The International House of Pancakes has sued Kansas City based International House of Prayer over use of the acronym "IHOP":

IHOP (pancake), based in Glendale, Calif., has sued IHOP (prayer), based in Kansas City, for trademark dilution and infringement. The lawsuit, filed last week in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, essentially said there was room for only one IHOP and that would be the restaurant chain that has been using the initials since 1973.

The religious group drawing thousands from around the world to south Kansas City to prepare for “end times” was started just 10 years ago.

And I was amused at this:
Thus the question, why sue now? The church mission started calling itself IHOP a decade ago.

“They’ve expanded — and now some of the branches are serving food,” [IHOPancake spokesman Patrick] Lenow said.

IHOP (the religious one) is based very near where I preach in Kansas City, and their future headquarters is set to be constructed pretty much across the highway from our building.

I don't know much about the IHOPrayer, but apparently they're, well, a little kooky:

The IHOP (prayer) on Red Bridge Road operates 24/7/365, sending a never-ending digital signal of prayers to Jerusalem, where it streams live on God TV for broadcast all over the world....

IHOP (prayer) was started by a man named Mike Bickle, who by his own admission grew up in a Waldo bar and claims to have traveled to heaven twice.

A friend of mine visited an IHOPrayer service with a young female he was interested in at the time. I asked him at the time if they gave little bottles of maple syrup to visitors. Apparently they don't.

2 comments:

Jeff said...

They are kooky. One of the "ministry groups" located here was the Zadok House of Prayer, which was a spinoff of IHOP. Coincidentally, when the money from their sugar daddy backer ended, they allegedly received a message from God that their mission here had been completed. Seemed like decent enough individuals, but even the Pentecostals considered some of their views out there. Their backer had been allowed to buy 10 houses in our neighborhood in a shady-ish backroom deal with the builder; he's now trying to dump them, rent them, whatever, with predictable effects on property values.

IIRC, there were also some accusations of shady behavior around IHOPrayer in Kansas City. Something about taking tax dollars to provide low income housing and then using it to house their own people, I believe.

Anonymous said...

Some of the things going on in this world really baffle me.