I have gone to both the snopes website and KFC’s own website; they both mention the gossip about the company not using real chickens–but neither says anything about the name “Kentucky” being patented or copyrighted. Perhaps Snopes took that off their site because a) it was patently false or b) The state of Kentucky told them to knock it off.
While the Kentucky trademark issue is just a UL, it’s well documented that the International House of Pancakes changed their name to IHOP after the United Nations demanded that they send at least 1,000 peace keeping troops to Bosnia and Rwanda.
“I guess one person can make a difference, although most of the time they probably shouldn’t.”