Hotscot

US chocolate giant Hershey goes to war over imported British sweets - Telegraph

sir_eccles

One wonders if the recent victory in favor of costco over gray imports of omega watches would apply here?

scrubbedexpat091

I can certainly understand Hershey's view on this.

GeoffM

So Hershey are terrified that Americans will discover what chocolate should taste like.

I'm in the Philippines at the moment, a country which has huge American influences. Except chocolate: yes you can buy Hershey but it's the Cadbury products which get shelf placement and even their own complete sections.

Mrs Danvers

Yeah. They may be forced to make chocolate that isn't infused with puke. That they've gotten away with it for so many years is a flat out crime.

ottotheboar

I import Nescafe Blend 37 Coffee as it is not available in the USA and always include a few cases of Wispas, Yorkies, Aeros, loose tea etc.
Normally it sails through customs but this time it was held for around three weeks.
I could never get a straight answer as to the reason for the delay, it was finally released and delivered without duties or other charges.
The only comment I was given was that there was a quota for chocolate and this may have been the reason for the delay.
The ridiculous thing was I had a car arrive in Baltimore and it cleared in 5 days.

McBadger

I can't understand how anyone is doing anything illegal, it's not like the companies that licensed the brands are selling directly.

So much for let the market decide. Honestly if Hershey's were selling chocolate that I liked, I'd rather buy that ; it's much cheaper than the imported stuff.

I'm mainly eating trader joe's pound-plus Belgium stuff these days though.

RoadWarriorFromLP

It would seem that Hershey's has exclusive ownership of the US trademark, so yes, it does have a claim against anyone else who would sell products with the same or similar names in the US. Similar packaging also helps Hershey's case.

The legal solution would be for the importer to either (a) rebrand the products as something else or (b) cut a deal with Hershey's, i.e. pay Hershey's some money to license it. I can understand why that's annoying to a customer, but the issue for the trademark owner is pretty unambiguous.

Bob

It's not?

I see it in quite a few of the local Brazilian and Indian grocery stores, along with the Gold.

Never paid to much attention to it though, so they might have been shifty imports.

McBadger

The trouble is that the TM law is there to stop confusion for consumers, who may think they are buying the "product" but in fact getting a copy.

- There's no such confusion in this case...

RoadWarriorFromLP

Trademark is like a patent or copyright - it belongs to the owner, not to the public.

The rights of the trademark belong to Hershey's, not to us.

Weeze

The arguments are so stupid. The consumer may be confused because another candy is sold in an orange packet. Isn't it bad grapes because the sale wasn't sucessful?

sir_eccles

You are both right. Hershey owns the tm and must defend it or risk losing it or having it become generic. The main test on tm infringement is usually two parts. Firstly is it the same product or field of business (with monster cables it usually isn't) then you ask whether there is likely to be confusion for the consumer.

The problem is these are not counterfeit goods neither are they imitators like store brand chocolates trying to imitate the look and feel. They are grey imports. There has been a lot of case law recently on such things. Right of first sale.

ottotheboar

Never seen it at any of the British Goods shops. If you look on Google or Amazon is it shipped from the UK in glass jars which makes it expensive to ship.
I buy the 500 gram tins.
I have seen Gold Bend for sale but it was expensive.

sir_eccles

I reflexively jiggled a clenched fist and thought of Anthony Head. Weird!