Sunday, January 25, 2015

Maybe they shouldn't have sold their rights, eh?

There's a petition on change.org to stop Hershey's from bringing a lawsuit against Cadbury UK. Hershey's is claiming trademark infringement ... but why do they think they can do that, and shame on the big American company for only caring about money!

Obstacle number 1 is that Hershey's acquired the rights to the Cadbury brand in the USA in 1988. While the Wikipedia entry isn't specific and I don't feel like looking it up, presumably it's an exclusive agreement. Thus, it's Hershey's brand in the USA and they have to file suit against threats to protect their trademark (note: if a company does not aggressively challenge trademark infringement, courts can later rule it's not really a trademark. Therefore, companies aggressively defend trademarks).

Obstacle number 2 is that Cadbury UK is owned by Mondelez International, which is owned by Kraft: an even bigger American company (market cap of 39B compared to 24B) who profits 2.4B a year compared to 830M a year. In other words, Hershey is the little guy in all of this!

It really sucks when your favorite product is no longer available (can I sue Honda to bring back certain cars?), but this is just how the free market works. Cadbury traded their USA rights for money. The deal is done.

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