Hands off that name! Five foods you didn’t know were trademarked

Popsicles, Coke, Band-Aids, Kleenex ... they’re all products that have become generic names regardless of the manufacturer. Some are so old, they’ve become generic and entered the public domain -- think string cheese. But there are plenty of non-commercial trademarked foods, some being made right here in L.A. Here’s a list of five foods you didn’t know are trademarked.

Cronut from Dominique Ansel bakery

The cronut, otherwise known as the rock star pastry craze sweeping the nation, is a doughnut-croissant hybrid by Dominique Ansel. Ansel stuffs his fried wonder pastry with pastry cream and has seasonal flavors such as rose water and maple lemon. Lines form at his SoHo bakery daily, well before he opens his doors. You can try to make your own version of the cronut, just don’t call it a cronut. The cronut was registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office earlier this year. Some Los Angeles bakeries are attempting to make their own versions including Semi Sweet bakery, which now makes a baked croissant-doughnut and calls it a crullant.

PHOTOS: Five trademarked foods

The Double Double burger from In-n-Out

The In-n-Out Double-Double may be a fan favorite at the burger chain, but hands off the name. The In-N-Out corporation had the Double-Double trademarked as a “a sandwich, namely, a burger, the principal ingredients of which are two meat patties and two slices of cheese,” in 2008.

The Baco from Baco Mercat

Josef Centeno’s baco flatbread creation is the base for many of his dishes at his downtown restaurant Baco Mercat. He tops the bread with spiced beef, shiitake mushrooms or merguez ragu for his “coca” flatbread pizzas and fills them with oxtail hash or crispy shrimp for his baco sandwiches. The baco was trademarked in 2011.

Dot on a Sprinkles cupcake

Sprinkles cupcakes are known for their signature dots - those circles of color-coded pieces of candy that sit atop every cupcake, letting you know which one is a red velvet (a blue dot with a surrounding red dot) or cinnamon sugar (a red dot with a surrounding brown dot). Sprinkles trademarked its “modern dot” in 2007 as “a nested-circle design placed prominently on the top center of a cupcake.

PHOTOS: Five trademarked foods

The Fonut at Fonuts

The Fonut is a “faux doughnut,” or baked doughnut from four-star pastry chef Waylynn Lucas (Jose Andres’ Bazaar, Patina) and her partner, voice actor Nancy Truman. The duo sell their fonuts, some vegan or vegan and gluten-free, out of their bakery on West 3rd Street. Flavors include strawberry buttermilk, salted caramel, maple bacon and more. The fonut was trademarked in 2011.

Can you think of something we missed? Let us know in the comments below.

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