The infamous Mai Tai court case - Tiki Drinks and Food

T TropicDrinkBoy Member Joined: Feb 27, 2011 Posts: 277	T TropicDrinkBoy Posted posted on Mon, Oct 7, 2013 8:25 PM TikiTacky, it’s time to wake up and crack open your copy of “Tiki Style” to page 127 (also found in “The Book of Tiki”) where you will find the following sworn statement by Carrie Wright (previously Carrie Guild): “I, too, hereby solemnly swear that on a summer night in 1944 Trader Vic served us a delightfully-flavored drink in an oversized glass filled with fine ice and asked us to suggest an appropriate Tahitian name. One sip, and my natural reaction was to say ‘Mai Tai-Roa Ae’, which in Tahitian means ‘Out of this world – the best’ … Well, that was that! Vic named the drink ‘Mai Tai’.” It was signed “Carrie Wright”, Oakland-1970. The entire page is devoted to the 1970 lawsuit against the Sun-Vac Corporation, and since sworn statements are typically submitted during legal proceedings one can surmise that was the purpose of this statement. On the same page you will also find a quaint picture of an elderly Trader Vic and Carrie in what may be the original Trader Vic location. Finally, it is common practice when companies introduce new products to file trade mark or copyright applications so I wouldn’t be surprised if Sun-Vac did so when they introduced their Mai Tai product. If you read my post carefully you will see that I qualified it with “probably”. Since Trader Vic wrote in 1976 (reference supplied in my previous post) of his disgust of those who tried to copyright the Mai Tai, and since on this occasion he had to take legal action against Sun-Vac, it is likely that they did so.

TikiTacky, it’s time to wake up and crack open your copy of “Tiki Style” to page 127 (also found in “The Book of Tiki”) where you will find the following sworn statement by Carrie Wright (previously Carrie Guild):

“I, too, hereby solemnly swear that on a summer night in 1944 Trader Vic served us a delightfully-flavored drink in an oversized glass filled with fine ice and asked us to suggest an appropriate Tahitian name.

One sip, and my natural reaction was to say ‘Mai Tai-Roa Ae’, which in Tahitian means ‘Out of this world – the best’ … Well, that was that! Vic named the drink ‘Mai Tai’.” It was signed “Carrie Wright”, Oakland-1970.

The entire page is devoted to the 1970 lawsuit against the Sun-Vac Corporation, and since sworn statements are typically submitted during legal proceedings one can surmise that was the purpose of this statement. On the same page you will also find a quaint picture of an elderly Trader Vic and Carrie in what may be the original Trader Vic location.

Finally, it is common practice when companies introduce new products to file trade mark or copyright applications so I wouldn’t be surprised if Sun-Vac did so when they introduced their Mai Tai product. If you read my post carefully you will see that I qualified it with “probably”. Since Trader Vic wrote in 1976 (reference supplied in my previous post) of his disgust of those who tried to copyright the Mai Tai, and since on this occasion he had to take legal action against Sun-Vac, it is likely that they did so.

Post #695711 by TropicDrinkBoy on Mon, Oct 7, 2013 8:25 PM