Nothing Bundt Cakes Sues Texas Bakery Over Frosting Design
Can you trademark a frosting design?
That question is now at the center of a federal trademark infringement lawsuit filed by Nothing Bundt Cakes against a small Texas bakery, PhatCakes, over decorative frosting appearing on Bundt cakes.
Nothing Bundt Cakes, the fast-growing bakery chain known for its signature ring-shaped cakes crowned with thick ribbons of frosting, has filed a federal trademark infringement lawsuit against PhatCakes, a smaller bakery based in Greenville, Texas.
The lawsuit underscores how far branding protection now extends in the food business, where visual presentation can be as valuable as taste.
Founded in Las Vegas from its founder’s kitchen, Nothing Bundt Cakes has grown into a national powerhouse with more than 700 franchise locations.
In the lawsuit filed today, Nothing Bundt Cakes describes itself as one of the most recognizable retail bakery brands in the country, known not only for its name and logo, but also for the distinctive frosting on top of its cakes.
The company even obtained a federal trademark registration on the frosting design.
Per the registration, the design consists of “long, narrow strips of frosting applied in a continuous ring, radiating outward from the center hole of the cake to its outer edge, following the cake’s circular shape.”
PhatCakes, according to the lawsuit, operates primarily in Greenville, Texas, and promotes its products on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. In addition to its main location, the bakery allegedly sells cakes through various third-party retail outlets.
Nothing Bundt Cakes claims that beginning around mid-2023, PhatCakes started selling Bundt cakes topped with a tubular frosting pattern that is “substantially similar, if not identical,” to the trademarked design.
By mid-2025, Nothing Bundt Cakes says it began receiving complaints from its local franchisees about the copying of its frosting design, prompting the company to investigate.
Examples of PhatCakes’ Frosting Designs From the Lawsuit
The complaint alleges that Nothing Bundt Cakes sent multiple demand letters to PhatCakes, demanding that it stop using the disputed frosting design. Those letters, the company says, were ignored.
After additional complaints from franchisees continued to come in, Nothing Bundt Cakes filed suit, seeking monetary damages, attorneys’ fees, and a permanent injunction barring PhatCakes from continuing to use the frosting pattern.
Can you really trademark frosting?
The short answer is yes.
Trademark law goes far beyond names, logos, and slogans. A trademark can be anything that helps consumers identify the source of a product, including shapes, colors, sounds, smells, packaging, and even product designs.
Here, the legal question is straightforward: would an average consumer, seeing that frosting pattern on a Bundt cake, believe the cake came from Nothing Bundt Cakes?
If the answer is yes, then Nothing Bundt Cakes would win the lawsuit.
Comparison of the Cakes
The fact that the USPTO issued a registration for the frosting pattern gives Nothing Bundt Cakes a meaningful advantage, but it doesn’t make this case a slam dunk. PhatCakes could challenge the registration on grounds that the frosting design is functional, meaning it’s necessary to frost a Bundt cake in this manner, and therefore shouldn’t be monopolized by one company.
That argument will rise or fall on evidence.
If Nothing Bundt Cakes can show that many other bakeries sell Bundt cakes without using this particular frosting style, and that the design is not required to frost a Bundt cake effectively, then PhatCakes faces a steep uphill battle.
There’s also a practical lesson here that has nothing to do with frosting…
Ignoring demand letters is almost always a bad idea.
Had PhatCakes engaged early and attempted to negotiate a resolution, there may have been an opportunity to reach a settlement before a lawsuit was filed. Trademark litigation is notoriously expensive, with legal fees quickly climbing into six figures, even for relatively straightforward cases.
Given that PhatCakes appears to be a small, local business, the cost of defending this lawsuit alone could be devastating. Unless the company has significant resources or a strong appetite to fight, an early settlement seems far more likely than a drawn-out courtroom battle.
Josh Gerben, Esq.
Josh Gerben, Esq. is a nationally recognized trademark attorney and the founder of Gerben IP. Since launching the firm in 2008, he has overseen the registration of over 10,000 trademarks and handled over 1,500 trademark disputes. Josh's practice focuses on building and defending global trademark portfolios for clients. These clients include entrepreneurs, private equity-backed businesses, athletes, celebrities, and public companies. Frequently quoted by major media outlets like CNBC, CNN, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal, Josh is widely regarded as a leading authority in trademark law.
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