Also not a lawyer but I think the problem here is that the thing being satirized (NFTs) is not Olive Garden and so they don't get protection from the olive garden copyright. Eg this satire of the OJ Simpson trial done in the style of Dr Seuss: https://www.imaginelaw.com/cat-in-the-hat-parody-infringes-o...

Hmm, valid analogy. Arguably they're satirizing Olive Garden as well, here, though? Alternatively, the creator could crank up their Olive Garden satire a little more to pass this test?

Trademarks are primarily about consumer confusion. Arguing that it's clearly not sanctioned by olive garden isn't that hard. And they're not competing with olive garden in any markets.

Does Olive Garden have a trademark in this domain? Trademarks are limited by the area they operate in, which is why you had Apple Music (the label) and Apple Computers side by side for years.

Also see https://www.nissan.com/, which Nissan (the car company) has had legal proceedings with for years, bullying a company that has the same name because they want their domain. So far, unsuccessfully.

I don't know what class this falls under, but unless Olive Garden has a trademark in class 38 or class 42, I don't think trademarks will give them the legal ability to take the website down.

What will help them take the website down is the ability to bully a small project into submission by filing all kinds of lawsuits to basically out-lawyer them. You can only get justice if you're rich, after all. I think a cease and desist will be quickly accepted to avoid the inevitable tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees for a full-on lawsuit.

They are claiming the NFT represents "An Olive Garden Franchise" and saying things like "While every Non-fungible Olive Garden is tethered to a real Olive Garden... "

It's going to be pretty difficult to argue that their statement "granting owners no rights or privileges in meatspace Olive Gardens" is sufficient.

would be a great case about the legality of crowdsourced leveraged buyouts.