07/27/2021
I would like to publicly applaud שורת הדין - Shurat HaDin for their attempt to register the Ben & Jerry's trademark to distribute ice cream in Judea & Samaria and make a comment on the legal aspects of the situation.
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/israeli-ngo-trademark-ben-and-jerrys-knockoff-after-israel-boycott-report-674809
Obviously I am not an expert on Israeli trademark law, but there is a principle in trademark law known as "unclean hands." Essentially, the idea is that courts will not enforce your trademark if you are engaged in unfair conduct in respect of that mark. So for example, in a 1929 case American courts would not enforce a trademark purportedly owned by the Ku Klux Klan.
In Israel, it's well known that boycotts such as these, although nominally limited in scope, are in reality the camel's nose and are intended as economic warfare against the entire State of Israel. Therefore, Israeli courts may very well decide that Ben and Jerry's is not in a legitimate position to enforce its trademarks.
The other thing to keep in mind is that legal activism necessarily involves risks. It's true that the outcome here is uncertain, but the same is true with virtually every important court decision which resulted from legal activism. Indeed, the case of Brown v. Board of Education, which ended segregation in American schools, went against established precedent.
Tel Aviv-based Shurat HaDin Law Center has reportedly registered a trademark for "Judea and Samaria's Ben & Jerry's" with Zionist flavors.
