CKE sues burger rival Jack in the Box

Santa Ana, Calif. -- The owner of Carl's Jr. and Hardee's has filed suit in Santa Ana, Calif., charging Jack in the Box Inc. with running deceptive ads mocking their burgers.

The CKE Restaurants Inc., lawsuit filed Friday in federal court against the San Diego-based chain cites TV ads that tout Jack in the Box's sirloin burgers and lampoons those made with Angus beef, used in the Carl's Jr. Six Dollar Burger and the Hardee's Thickburger.

In one ad, a mascot named "Jack" is asked to point to a cow's "angus area" on a diagram. The mascot sheepishly says, "I'd rather not." In another ad, employees laugh when talking about rivals' "Angus burgers."

"While Defendant may find humorous the aural and phonetic similarities between the words 'Angus' and 'anus,'" the CKE lawsuit says, the link is made to create "the erroneous notion that all cuts of Angus beef are derived from the anus of beef cattle."

Jack in the Box officials said they had no comment on the lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages and "corrective advertising," the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday.

Copyright 2007 United Press International.