A well-known snack foods manufacturer thinks its customers have a hard time telling the difference between the low fat cookies it makes for people, and treats made for horses.

Multi-national giant Nabisco Brands Company, manufacturer of Oreos, Lifesavers, A-1 Steak Sauce and other well-recognized foods for people, is moving to prevent Treatwells, LLC, a tiny Morro Bay, California-based maker of equine products, from using the Treatwells name. According to a notice of opposition filed by Nabisco with the U.S. Patent and Trademark office, the company fears that consumers will confuse its Snackwell’s brand of low fat cookies with Treatwells’ Joker’s Treats, a baked treat made for horses.

“This is one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever heard,” said Brett Osterfeld, general manager of Treatwells. “In all the years Treatwells has been making Joker’s Treats, we have never heard of a single person who has confused one of our horse treats for a major commercial brand of cookies made for humans.”

Nabisco, however, believes its concerns are legitimate. In the company’s opposition letter it claims that because it manufactures Snackwell’s cookies for people, as well as the Milkbone brand of dog biscuits, consumers of these products may assume that Treatwell’s Joker’s Treats for horses are somehow an extension of the Snackwell’s brand