It’s that time of year again, the Minnesota fishing opener is upon us this weekend, so Rapala is sporting its new billboard in the Twin Cities metro area, as shown below:

“Winner, winner, walleye dinner,” is an obvious play on the far more frequently uttered “winner, winner, chicken dinner” positive outcome phrase, that apparently derives from early casino dining experiences. In fact, Ballys has decided to cash in on this phrase by obtaining a federal registration covering the phrase for gaming machines.

And, last year, Raising Cane’s, a fast food chicken restaurant chain (one that my kids strongly prefer over Chick-fil-A, by the way) obtained a federal registration for the same phrase in connection with restaurant services.

Yet, less than two months ago, an intent-to-use application for “Winner! Winner! Grouper Dinner!” was filed by Team Lobo in Naples, Florida, for t-shirts, so I suspect we won’t see Rapala’s above tagline appearing on t-shirts this year. For a comparison of nutritional facts concerning grouper v. walleye, see here.

Curiously, last year Rapala expressly abandoned its “Bass Friends Forever” t-shirt trademark application, shortly after it was published for opposition, leaving us to wonder who may have added some tension to their fishing line? Perhaps PVH Corp, based on these rights in BASS?

So, here’s my suggested Rapala billboard tagline for next year: Eat More Walleye.

What do you suppose Chick-fil-A would have to say about that?

In case you’re wondering about status of the Eat More Kale dispute — the USPTO has been sitting on Bo Muller-Moore’s 71-page Office Action Response for eight months now, so stay tuned.