The restaurant's owners and derby pie creators were Walter and Leaudra Kern, who constantly researched the optimal recipe for their creation.

The cooking magazine Bon Appetit won a temporary victory in May 1987 when a judge ruled the name "derby pie" generic, but the Sixth Circuit United States Court of Appeals reversed the decision, saying the Bon Appetit magazine "failed to introduce scientific survey evidence to support their assertion that the public views 'derby pie' as generic".

[5] In May 2013, the Electronic Frontier Foundation inducted Kern's Kitchen into its "Takedown Hall of Shame," claiming that "the company behind the most litigious confection in America is going after individual websites that post new recipes for derby pies.

"[6] DERBY-PIE owner Alan Rupp sent a letter to the Louisville Courier-Journal contending that an article published in 2017 and featuring a “Derby pie” recipe “constituted a knowing infringement on its trademark.” A few weeks later the newspaper published an article on a local baker who makes macaroons with the flavor “Derby Pie,” thus prompting Mr. Rupp to file his suit in a federal court in Kentucky.

The lower court dismissed all claims, writing in part that Mr. Rupp did “not plausibly establish that there is a risk of consumer confusion” between the trademarked DERBY-PIE and the home-made pie.