Though few people probably wander into Missouri's International House of Prayer expecting to dine on a stack of syrup-drenched pancakes, the lawyers from the International House of Pancakes don't want to take any chances. According to CNN, they've filed a lawsuit asserting that the prayer house "selected and adopted the International House of Prayer name, knowing it would be abbreviated IHOP. IHOP-KC intended to misappropriate the fame and notoriety of the household name IHOP to help promote and make recognizable their religious organization."

The prayer house's website displays no obvious breakfast-themed designs, of course. But the pancake purveyor's lawyers contend that the "odds are stacked against the church group" and they are providing the court with "pages and pages of documentation of websites, newsletters and signs on buildings where the prayer group allegedly used the IHOP acronym."

On a similar note, Facebook is trying to secure trademark authority of the term "face" (after successfully securing some rights to "book").

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Erik Hayden