American Dad v. American Dad: A David and Goliath Story

AmericanDad.com is run, like many small internet businesses, off of a desktop computer and a server located remotely. The web magazine that serves as a resource for positive parenting, targeted to fathers, faces a struggle with Fox over brand identity. Typing out reviews, stories, and parenting tips from a renovated South End wharehouse space, AmericanDad.com’s founder and CEO, Peter Demers, is fighting to protect his magazines vs. Fox’s promotion of their bumbling father figure, Stan Smith. Bostonist much prefers Family Guy’s Rhode Island native Peter Griffin to the Langly Falls based Smith – maybe it’s because only one of them has a bottle of Autocrat in the kitchen.

AmericanDad.com (we refer to it this way as a disambiguation – the magazine is American Dad, they just only live on the web as AmericanDad.com) has been an idea in the works in Boston since 2000. The site went live with the current implementation in 2003 as “The Online Resource for Guys with Kids.” Demers has toyed with the content over time, changing focus from local to a several city reach – but for now they focus on Boston with plans to expand as the site continues to add content and resources.

The image of Fox’s “dad” in American Dad is what troubles Boston’s AmericanDad.com over the trademarking of the words American Dad. The website existed long before the scribbles of American Dad’s Stan Smith was picked up to be a prime time cartoon – in fact they’ve been around since before Family Guy was cancelled the first time. The Fox character is perhaps the antithesis of what AmericanDad.com attempts to promote as a father figure – someone kind, understanding of their children, and one who doesn’t have the “frequent knee-jerk reaction of shooting holes in the toaster whenever the toast pops up.” AmericanDad.com had filed numerous oppositions to the American Dad trademark request by Fox. A Fox trademark would hinder any merchandise plans and brand identity the local web magazine hopes to push forward. Want to see what we’re talking about – the Season 1 DVD of American Dad is out and Fox has pitted it against Family Guy in their online StreetFighter-style game.