Law Group Files Petition To Protest As 'Degrading' The Beef Girl Trademark

Three women students at the Harvard Law School filed a petition last month with the U. S. patent office to oppose a trademark which they consider "degrading to the image of women in the public eye."

The trademark, requested by Longchamps Restaurants in New York City, portrays the profile of a nude woman with her body sectioned off as if it were a hunk of beef.

"The image analogizes women to cattle and leads to false stereotypes of women," Janet Benshoof, a second year Law student and originator of the petition, said last night, adding "It is degrading to the image of women and is therefore against public policy."

The main purpose of their petition is its "harassment value," Cynthia Mollenkopf, another second-year Law student and one of the signers, said yesterday. "It is mostly to preserve a procedural opposition; or the trademark would just go on without a hearing." If the petition is accepted, hearings will be held this summer in Washington, D.C.

The women hope that the petition will excite New York women's groups into harassing and picketing Longchamps Restaurant until it withdraws its trademark from the patent office.

The image of the nude woman as a hunk of beef was originated about five years ago by the Cattle Baron Steak and Roast Beef Parlor in New York City and immediately became popular with poster buyers.

Richard Donaldson, a supervisor of the Longchamps Corporation at the Cattle Baron Restaurant said yesterday, "We never use the image in our ads any more. Someone there must be misinformed. It is presently only being distributed by the printing company."

The Cattle Baron poster is still "very popular" and is currently being sold all over the world according to Frank Kline, a vice president of Poster Prints Co, in Pennsylvania. He refused to say how many posters are printed a year.