Feds Cream Fake Mr. Softees

Two Queens ice cream vendors last month took a licking from a federal court judge who ruled the pair were selling soft-serve cones from fake Mr. Softee trucks.

New Jersey-based Mr. Softee Company was awarded a $20,000 judgment against vendors Akop Papazian and the M. Pete Soft Ice Cream Corporation for trademark infringement in a lawsuit filed last summer, court records state.

Since Mr. Softee attorneys have not been able to collect on the judgment, the parent company Spabo Ice Cream Company, has asked that the U.S. Marshal’s Service seize Papazian’s blue-and-white 1986 Chevy van and a knockoff vehicle used by the M. Pete Soft Ice Cream Corporation and give Spabo the proceeds.

Court records state that private investigators hired by the Mr. Softee Company photographed Papazian’s vehicle as it traveled throughout Sunnyside and Woodside last summer, bearing the 52-year-old Mr. Softee trademark of a smiling ice cream cone with a bow tie on its exterior.

Officials at the Mr. Softee Company also want Papazian to paint over the trademark image on the truck and surrender the Mr. Softee menu boards they allege he swiped from a legitimate truck.

Officials at the M. Pete Ice Cream Corporation did not return calls for comment and Papazian could not be reached at his Sunnyside home for comment.
—Liz Goff