That's an oversimplification. WH could also reach out and offer to work out a deal with the site owner to license use of their trademark. That would probably entail some compensation (which could be anything from "good will" or a token cash amount, up to millions of dollars) and probably some verbiage on the page reading something along the lines of "Logos and identifiers on this page are the property of Waffle House, Inc and are used under license" or whatever.
sure but thats also work that someone doesn't have to do. and the "house" was evidentally dealing with a disaster at the time.
Yeah, but it's work that would have had a great ROI if marketing had been fully in the game, which was kinda the point.
of course i would love to live in a world where waffle house can be as off the rails whimsy as kfc, but im just pointing out why not to get your hopes too high!