Quoc Viet Foods, Inc. v. VV Foods, LLC

ORDER GRANTING DEFENDANT’S MOTION FOR JUDGMENT AS A MATTER OF LAW

CORMAC J. CARNEY, UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

I. INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND

This is a trademark case involving soup base for pho, a Vietnamese noodle soup. The traditional preparation of pho is highly labor-intensive: a pho cook will begin by boiling beef bones for 30 minutes, discarding the water, washing the bones, and then boiling them again to slowly extract the bone marrow and make a broth. (Dkt. 270-1 [“Reddy Decl.”] Exh. 1 at 12-13.) Properly done, this process takes about a day. (Id. at 13.) Crucially, while the broth is…