Six years after saying he “ain’t never eating a m*****f****** hot dog” again, Snoop Dogg is apparently planning to launch his own brand of frankfurters called “Snoop Doggs,” according to a recent legal filing at the federal trademark office.
Attorneys for the hip-hop legend – real name Calvin Broadus – applied last month at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for a federal trademark registration on the term “Snoop Doggs,” saying he plans to use it to sell hot dogs and other types of sausage.
The December filing came with little detail on the planned products. Snoop’s attorneys filed it as a so-called intent-to-use application, meaning Snoop has not yet launched a brand — but that he has a serious intent to do so and wants to lock down the name ahead of time. An attorney for Snoop did not return a request for comment on Monday.
A hot dog brand would be just the latest consumer venture from Snoop. In 2015, the marijuana aficionado started a cannabis company called Leafs By Snoop, and in 2020, the “Gin and Juice” rapper debuted a liquor line called Indoggo Gin. He’s also released his own cookbook, and has repeatedly appeared on cooking television segments with close friend Martha Stewart.
But the choice of hot dogs is perhaps a bit surprising, given his public history with the tubular food.
Back in 2016, Snoop made headlines with an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! in which he watched a step-by-step process of how hot dogs are made and tried to guess what he was watching. By the end of the segment, Snoop said: “This is a hot dog!? Oh cuz, I ain’t never eating a m*****f****** hot dog! If that’s how they make hot dogs, I don’t want one. I’m good.”
Of course, the whole “Snoop Doggs” project might still come to nothing. Back in 2011, Snoop filed a similar trademark application for “Snoop Scoops” for use as a brand name for ice cream, but he abandoned the effort a few years later and it doesn’t appear that an actual product was ever released under the name.
Snoop is represented at the trademark office by Lawrence E. Apolzon, a partner at the powerhouse trademark firm Fross Zelnick Lehrman & Zissu PC. The law firm has also repped Beck, Dr. Dre, Green Day, Foo Fighters, Mariah Carey, Nirvana, Mary J. Blige and many other music bigwigs on similar issues.
