http://www.vox.com/business-and-finance/2015/12/8/9868338/pepperidge-farm-trader-joes-lawsuit
>When you go grocery shopping, you can often save money by buying cheaper, generic alternatives to popular name-brand foods. One name-brand manufacturer, the cookie company Pepperidge Farm, thinks that Trader Joe's has taken this practice too far. It's suing the grocery chain for selling "crispy cookies filled with Belgian chocolate," which Pepperidge Farm claims is too similar to its own Milano cookies.
>"The Infringing Product contains a chocolate filling sandwiched between two rounded rectangular cookies, mimicking an overall oval shape," Pepperidge Farm complains in its lawsuit. Also, the TJ's cookies come in a bag that's somewhat similar to the Milano bag, and, like the Milano cookie package, it shows cookies resting on "fluted paper trays."
>Trader Joe's says it doesn't comment on pending litigation, but we can expect the company to fight this lawsuit.
That's some Michelin 3-Star BS right there.
![kraft-canada-chocolate-cake-small-25782[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/eYcpxVM.jpg "kraft-canada-chocolate-cake-small-25782[1].jpg")
>>7151415
circles are almost ovals too
>>7151415
I hate it when companies try to wipe out their competition by bogus patents instead of competing on the merits of their products.
From now on, I guess that Pepperidge Farm products are now on my "No Buy" list.
>>7151415
Trademark, copy right and patent laws really need to reworked.
>>7151415
Man I hope Pepperidge Farm wins this lawsuit. Sick of people outright stealing concepts and designs and passing it off as their own.
milano cookies are god tier
>>7151441
>Sick of people outright stealing concepts and designs and passing it off as their own.
So you are saying that nobody should be allowed to make cookies with rounded corners unless they pay Pepperidge Farms for the privilege of doing so?
>>7151457
If they win, Nabisco will have the Hydrox cookie banned even though it just came back a few motnhs ago.
You know, I don't like TJ's and never shop there (because I actually know how to cook and have little use for frozen ready meals and shelf-stable dinner kits), but this gives me an incentive to go in there and give those cookies a go.
I never went to TJ's much in the first place, even when I lived above one. It was on the first floor of the apartment building i lived in at the time. But now? I'm-a snatch me some of them cookies right up.
>>7151476
Isn't Hydrox older than Oreo? I don't like either, but I've a friend who's a food historian and I'm pretty sure he's said that Hydrox pre-dates Oreo.
>>7151484
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oreo
>Oreo has become the best-selling cookie in the United States since its introduction in 1912
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrox
>Hydrox is the brand name for the creme-filled chocolate sandwich cookie manufactured by Leaf Brands. It debuted in 1908 and was originally manufactured by Sunshine (later Sunshine Biscuits) and was sold for over ninety years. The Hydrox was largely discontinued in 1999 after Sunshine was acquired by Keebler, who would later be acquired by Kellogg's. In September 2015 the product was re-introduced by Leaf Brands.
You're right, maybe they could get Oreo's banned instead (keep in mind I think these Trademark/IP lawsuit are all nonsense anyway)
>>7151484
yes, hydrox does predate oreo
>>7151476
Hydrox has a more buttery taste and the cookie is crisper so milk doesn't make it soggy...even if you drop it in your glass of milk.
Patents ruined capitalism. Whoever invented them should have their descendants publicly hanged.
Since the discussion has turned in the direction of Hydrox, there is a question I have been meaning to ask: Do the new Hydrox taste like the original?
I have heard conflicting testimony, so I want to hear /ck/s side.
>>7151415
>different cookie shape
>packaging looks different
>dissimilar names
I have no idea what they're smoking, maybe they're hoping they can force TJ to the bargaining table with stalling, because their lawyer has to KNOW they don't have a case. You cannot trademark a 'shape', only a design. Pepperidge Farm cookies lack a clear 'design'. If Oreo can't sue dollar store brand chocolate wafer creme sandwhich cookies which are identical except for logo and the stamp on the cookie, there is no way Pepperidge wins this case.
>>7151730
This >>7151425
Pretty much sums it up. They are hoping to get rid of competition by going around capitalism and being little twats. I fucking love milanos and I'm betting they'd taste better than the trader joe cookies, but instead of proving it tastes better they are just trying to take out TJ.
>>7151425
Pepperidge farm is owned by campbell's
>>7151719
Americans perverted capitalism
Recipes are not protected under intellectual property law. I mean, people can't pirate cookbooks, but not the actual concepts or instructions. This is totally bogus.
I want everyone who sees this thread to stop and realize that bullshit like this is yet another reason the entire legal system is hairline deep in pure bullshit and needs to be scrapped and rebuilt from the ground up.
>>7151415
These things were invented in Europe so how the fuck can an American company patent it?
>>7151441
Sure, because no one has ever made butter cookies sandwiched with chocolate in the entire history of the world until Pepperidge Farm did. You stupid fucking twat.
>>7151415
Good thing oreo hasn't sued other brands for having sandwich cookies similar to them
>>7152348
Of course. No person had ever done anything in all of human history until the United States Patent and Trademark Office came into existence and began encouraging people to do things by rewarding them with the rights to their ideas.
>>7151726
Nobody really remembers what the original tasted like.
The guy who makes them makes a living by reviving unused patents. Once they're abandoned for a certain amount of time you can legally use it. He tried hours hardest to replicate the recipe, but he had to rely on peoples reviews.
Freakanomics did an episode all about it.
>>7151426
they just need to actually apply the fucking law instead of guessing because nothing cited there can have legal weight in the court.
>>7151719
you can't patent the result of a recipe, just the actual industrial process that made it. So unless they stole their factory they can go fuck themselves with their claims.
fuck capitalism
>>7151954
Millions? Try billions.
>>7153157
>nobody really remembers
I ate them as a child, teenager as well...they're significantly better than Oreos.
>>7153157
No. It doesn't matter how unused the patent might be, you can be sued for using it without permission.
Also, patents expire in about 20 years. After that time, you can use it all you want.
In the case of copyrights, the copyrights do last much longer than patents. While you might be sued for violating a copyright that appears to have been abandoned (and I know someone who was ran out of business by lawsuits for publishing books that hadn't been in print something like 50 years), in most cases it may be difficult to figure out who owns the copyrights.
http://www.uspto.gov/custom-page/inventors-eye-advice-1
>One of the most common questions the Office of Innovation Development receives is whether or not food recipes can be patented.
...
>To be patentable, an invention must also be "novel" and "nonobvious," as determined by 35 U.S.C. 102 and 35 U.S.C. 103, respectively. That means a patentable invention can neither have existed before, nor be an obvious improvement or alteration of a previously known invention, which could be determined by someone with reasonable skill in the art encompassed by the invention. This is where patenting a recipe gets a lot trickier.
>Consider that people have been mixing together ingredients to produce different food products since the dawn of humanity-in fact, some of the earliest known examples of written language are food recipes. These days, most "new" recipes are merely combinations of known ingredients in varying amounts, separate discoveries of preexisting recipes, or variations on known recipes. Even if a previous version of a recipe cannot be found, a "new" recipe could still be considered obvious.
>A final food product typically is nothing more than the expected sum total of individual components. ...
>There are exceptions in which the combination of ingredients used, or the way they are processed, results in a food product totally unexpected. That's something that may be patentable. Numerous patents on food products are issued each year. However, if you take a look at most of these patents, you'll find that the recipe was more likely to have been created in a laboratory than on a kitchen counter.
they won't win
>>7153212
Fuck you commie scum
This is actually a Trademark case. What matters is whether or not it is likely to confuse consumers.
So how many people think that if they went to the store to buy Pepperidge Farm Milano cookies they might buy Trader Joe's cookies by accident because they were unable to tell the difference?
If I'm on the jury, Pepperidge Farm is not likely to win.
The real bullshit is the "oval shape", yeah right. Them bitches are straight up rectangular.
fuck sugar
fuck diabetes
fuck obesity
Those are biscuits desu senpai.
>>7153491
BUT YOUR HONOR, PEOPLE ARE SO STUPID WE MIGHT LOSE MARKET SHARE BECAUSE THEY CANT TELL THE DIFFERENCE BECAUSE THEY ARE SO STUPID
How has pringles not sued lays for lay's stax?
>>7151415
Looks like I won't be buying anything from Jewridge Farms in the foreseeable future.
>>7153299
This sounds like it would be helpful for sorting out software patents.
Holy fuck are software patents stupid.
>rounded rectangle
Seems like they're getting legal advice from Apple.
>>7151415
the big problem is that a lot of these stores will put their generic brands literally right beside the name brand equivalent. Not in their own brand's section in the isle, but right beside the one it copies as a big fuck you to the company working so hard to get their product on that ideal area of shelf space. Getting good shelf space is a fierce game but obviously their stores, their rules...
>>7151954
I just searched up hydrox
>hydrox came before Oreo
>Oreo succeeded it in popularity and people eventually stopped buying hydrox because they assumed it was a knockoff
That is a good cvcking if I've ever seen one
