Mister Softee, based in Runnymede, New Jersey, has been around since 1956. The business is owned by the Conway family. There are 350 franchises operating in 15 states. Mister Softee expanded to China in 2007. We had a choice between Mister Softee and Good Humor when I was a kid, but these days Mister Softee is the only game in town.
And that's the way the Conways would like to keep it. Since around 1990 rogue ice cream vendors have been driving counterfeit Softee trucks and passing off their soft serve as the real thing. The Conways have had to defend their brand a number of times. The latest dispute occurred earlier this year when New Yorker Dimetrios Tsirkos decided to drop out of the Mister Softee franchise organization. He changed the name on the sides of his trucks from Mister Softee to Master Softee and altered the logo a bit - waffle cone instead of wafer cone. Then he cranked up the jingle and drove around the neighborhoods. The Conways filed a trademark infringement lawsuit and got an injunction that Tsirkos ignored.
After some time passed, Tsirkos removed the word "Master" from the trucks and drove around selling "Softee" ice cream. After some more pressure, he removed the word "Softee" and the ice cream man logo and called his business New York Ice Cream. The Conways say Tsirkos has not satisfied court orders because he has not paid royalties or returned the trucks' music boxes and menu boards to Softee franchise headquarters. Additionally, the trucks are still blue and white, distinctly Mister Softee-ish, and that has to change. The battles rages on.
What a world. There's a dark side to a kid chasing an ice cream truck, but I'm not gonna let it keep me from a chocolate cone after some sweaty yard work.
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