BUSINESS people in Wales who are always being told how important it is to protect their intellectual property rights could learn a thing or two from a dispute in America.

Soul singer Smokey Robinson is in a bit of a stew in a row over trademarks - but by contrast the name of late Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia is being successfully used to promote a 'grapeful' product.

A Louisiana chef is suing Robinson for trademark infringement over a catchy slogan he says he has used for years to sell gumbo - a fish stew.

Johnny "Jambalaya" Percle said he had Soul in Yo Bowl trademarked in 1997 after using it for a decade.

Percle's complaint says that Robin-son's use of the phrase, The Soul is in the Bowl, for his line of Louisiana foods is so similar it will confuse consumers.

"If he would have called it 'Smokey Robinson's Gumbo,' he wouldn't have heard boo from Johnny Jam," said Percle, a chef at Nottoway Plantation, near Baton Rouge. "I truly believe by all legal rights, Soul in the Bowl is mine, not his."

Robinson's Soul in the Bowl which features frozen Louisiana gumbo was launched this year.

Garcia was many things: musician, artist, writer, composer, but wine connoisseur wasn't really one of them. That hasn't stopped the first shipment of J. Garcia wine being a big hit with drinkers. Released last year, the first 22,000 cases sold out in just 30 days, according to the Clos du Bois winery in Californian, which is producing it with the approval of Garcia's estate.

A second batch of wines, more than 30,000 cases of merlot, zinfandel and cabernet sauvignon, recently arrived in stores.

Garcia, who died of a heart attack in 1995, was renowned initially for his music.

But toward the end of his life he began to gain attention for his abstract paintings.