Jack in the Box says court won't pull ad from TV

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Fast food chain Jack in the Box Inc. (JBX.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) on Monday said a U.S. court denied rival CKE Restaurants Inc.'s (CKR.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) motion for a preliminary injunction that would have forced Jack in the Box to stop airing a TV ad mocking CKE's Angus hamburgers.

CKE, parent of the Carl's Jr. and Hardee's fast-food chains, sued Jack In The Box in May over television commercials it says misleads customers into confusing CKE's Angus hamburgers with meat from a cow's anus.

Jack in the Box said the U.S. District Court in Santa Ana, California, found that CKE had not met the burden to merit an injunction to stop the commercials.

Still, CKE said the lawsuit, which seeks damages from its competitor, will continue.

"At this point, we have every intention of pursuing this case," CKE Chief Executive Andrew Puzder told Reuters. "This was sort of a beginning skirmish."

CKE has not yet settled on the amount it will request in damages, but Puzder said it would be a substantial sum. He said the next hearing date would be on August 20.

The ads promoting Jack in the Box's new line of sirloin burgers take aim at Angus beef, which CKE, McDonald's Corp. (MCD.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz)(MCD.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Burger King Holdings Inc. (BKC.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) use in their fanciest burgers.

In one of the ads at issue, Jack in the Box's bubble-headed mascot, Jack, points to a diagram of meat cuts showing that sirloin comes from a cow's midsection. A colleague asks Jack to point to the "Angus area" of the cow, and draws a circle in the air. Jack responds: "I'd rather not."

Jack in the Box "wanted our advertising to highlight the high quality of our new burger and differentiate it from our competitors' products in a humorous way," Chief Marketing Officer Terri Graham said in a statement.

"We're glad that common sense prevailed and that this motion was denied," she said.