However, most people will think that it’s all about the chicken.

It’s the current legal tiff between Slipknot and Burger King over the King’s faux metal band, named Coq Roq (both words rhyme with rock).

You can learn all about Coq at the promotional Web site CoqRoq.com, which looks like something out of Col. Sanders’ worst nightmares. At CoqRoq.com you’ll be treated to blasting guitars, crunching power chords and chicken. Specifically, Burger King’s new chicken product, Chicken Fries.

It seems that Slipknot has a problem with Burger King, and claims that the mock Coq is ripping off Slipknot’s image as masked heavy metal thunder gods of rock.

So far, Slipknot has threatened to sue the ruler of burgers as well as the ad agency behind the Coq Roq campaign. In a letter addressed to both parties, which is currently posted on TheSmokingGun.com the band’s legal eagles claim that the CoqRoq.com Web site, as well as TV ads, are “designed to conjure up the image and persona of a live performance of Slipknot.” The lawyers also claim that the masks worn by the Coq Roq musicians are based upon the masks Slipknot wears during performances, such as the gas mask worn by Slipknot’s Sid Wilson, or the kabuki-style mask worn by the band’s Joey Jordison.

Slipknot’s lawyers also claim that the ad agency, Crispin Porter & Bogusky, contacted them in September 2004 about having the band appear in a Burger King advertising campaign. However, according to the band’s lawyers, after several weeks of discussions, the band refused the agency’s request, saying that they did not want to be associated with the fast food chain because “Burger King is not in keeping with the image or brand that Slipknot has worked extremely hard to create over many years.”

In retaliation to the band’s legal threats, Burger King filed a federal court suit, also posted on TheSmokingGun.com, claiming that the charges are just so much Coq & Bull, and asked for a judgment declaring that the ad campaign in no way infringes upon Slipknot’s rights of publicity or trademarks.

To the company, coqroq.com is the natural extension of an ad campaign that started with the SubservientChicken.com Web site, where visitors can type commands to a person in a chicken suit. Burger King also cited other mask-wearing bands such as Marilyn Manson and Mudvayne as evidence that Slipknot does not have a monopoly when it comes to masked metal bands.

Burger King’s preemptive legal strike against Slipknot also contains examples of Coq Roq lyrics, such as “Bob your head / Push out your beak / Bob your head / Shake your lean white meat.”

We’ve come a long way from “Hold the pickle / Hold the lettuce …”

Burger King also disputes Slipknot’s claim that the advertising agency contacted the band last fall about appearing in an advertising campaign. Instead, the burgermeister says that Slipknot was one of several bands and artists contacted last year about appearing in a series of spots encouraging young people to vote.

If you’re thinking that Slipknot is going off half-Coqed, and that this legal argument is for the birds, you might want to think again, for there is already legal precedent for protecting an artist’s image or overall sound from infringement.

Johnny Carson prevailed against a portable toilet business that named its product after the talk show host’s famous catch phrase, “Here’s Johnny.” Tom Waits was victorious over Frito Lay when the snack company hired a Waits sound-a-like performer to voice a song patterned after Wait’s own “Step Right Up.” And Bette Midler showed Ford Lincoln Mercury who was really in the driver’s seat when the Divine Miss M forced the car company to stop running ads featuring a Midler vocal clone singing “Do You Wanna Dance.”

But is Burger King’s Chicken Fries campaign ripping off Slipknot’s image? That will be for a court to decide. Either way, this has all the makings of one helluva Coq fight.