Undercooked brand: My Dough Girl starts over from scratch.

• Author: Kinder, Peri
• Position: Lessons Learned

Although her WWII pin-up girl cookie mascots look nothing like the tubby Pillsbury Dough Boy, Tami Cromar found herself embroiled in a trademark dispute with the Dough Boy-mascot owner General Mills. Her gourmet cookie shop, My Dough Girl, was deemed too similar to the Pillsbury name and General Mills' attorneys insisted that Cromar change her bakery's name--immediately.

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When news got out that Pillsbury was targeting a small bakery in Salt Lake City, support grew worldwide and fans wanted Cromar to put up a fight. But instead of launching a lengthy court battle, Cromar chose to let it go and begin the process of rebranding.

"People hoped I would fight because they wanted me to represent the American public, but I was worried that it would deplete me physically, emotionally, spiritually, financially and pretty much destroy all that I am," she says. Instead, Cromar turned her energy to rebranding her bakery while drawing strength from the wave of publicity.

Strictly Business

Cromar's husband affectionately dubbed her his "Dough Girl," and that's how the name of My Dough Girl came about. She opened her bakery in December 2008, and within a few months, her gourmet cookies were being snatched up as quickly as she could bake them.

After 18 months, Pillsbury stepped in and changed everything. The My Dough Girl trademark was in its final stages of acceptance and Cromar never saw the lawsuit coming. "We had been approved by the Department of Commerce, we had been approved by the USTPO and it was open for opposition. Nobody opposed it, and Pillsbury came in at the eleventh hour."

Cromar had to decide what was worth fighting for. Although she wasn't planning on entering combat with Pillsbury, she immediately hired her own attorney. Then she decided what she was willing to relinquish.

"Emotionally, I was very attached to the name," Cromar says. "I didn't want to let it go and my first instinct was to say, 'Hey, that's not fair!' I realized life isn't fair anyway--so what's the big deal. As soon as I removed myself emotionally from the name and regarded it more as a business matter, I decided it really wasn't going to be that bad."

The Mother of Invention

The search for a new name began. My Dough Girl was a reference to WWII and each cookie was given a 1940s-era name. Cromar wanted to keep that nostalgic feel to whatever name she selected for her bakery.

She considered naming her cookie shop Betty Bomber after her mother and a...