Fwd: [corp-focus] Marry Me, Kiss Me, Be Mine, Cease and Desist!

Tue Feb 15 02:34:19 UTC 2000

for all you Lewis and Clark enthusiasts!

>Date: Mon, 14 Feb 2000 19:16:11 -0500 (EST)
>From: Robert Weissman <rob at essential.org>
>Subject: [corp-focus] Marry Me, Kiss Me, Be Mine, Cease and Desist!
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>List-Id: Sharp-edged commentary on corporate power
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>
>Marry Me, Kiss Me, Be Mine, Cease and Desist!
>By Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman
>
>Debbie and Russel Kruger own a small drugstore and soda fountain in
>Mandan, North Dakota. Debbie also makes candy. She has created three
>different candy bars, one of which she calls the Lewis & Clark Bar.
>
>Debbie Kruger created the Lewis & Clark bar in 1997 to commemorate the
>upcoming two-hundredth anniversary of the expedition led by Meriwether
>Lewis and William Clark up the Missouri River from St. Louis in 1804.
>Lewis & Clark spent the winter at Ft. Mandan, a forty miles north of the
>Kruger's drugstore.
>
>Debbie Kruger has manufactured roughly 30,000 Lewis & Clark bars. She has
>sold about 20,000 of them.
>
>In September 1999, the Krugers received a letter from a lawyer in Boston.
>The lawyer said he represented the New England Confectionery Company
>(Necco) -- the makers of Necco wafers and those little heart candies that
>say things like "Marry Me," "Be Mine," and "Kiss Me."
>
>Necco, which is owned by UIS, a larger conglomerate, recently bought the
>company that makes the Clark Bar, and the Boston lawyer claimed that the
>Lewis & Clark Bar infringes on Necco's rights to the Clark Bar name.
>
>"We want to come to some arrangement with you that permits your limited
>use of the Lewis and Clark Bar, subject to conditions, and provides for
>the cancellation of your North Dakota trademark registration or its
>assignment to my client," wrote Thomas Smurzynski, Necco's lawyer. "The
>arrangement must acknowledge my client's significant concern about
>protecting its valuable intellectual property assets."
>
>The Krugers' position is that the Lewis & Clark bar is a totally different
>candy bar with a totally distinctive wrapper. There is no infringement,
>they claim. And they called their Senator, Byron Dorgan (D-North Dakota),
>seeking help.
>
>Last week, Senator Dorgan took to the floor of the U.S. Senate to argue
>the case for his constituents.
>
>"What happened here is wrong, but it happens all the time," Senator Dorgan
>said. "It is throwing your weight around, if you are big enough to do it."
>
>"My message for Necco is -- pick on somebody your own size," Dorgan said.
>
>"I am one of their customers and I say to Necco -- lay off small
>businesses. Don't hire blind lawyers. If you can't tell the difference
>between their Clark bar wrapper and the wrapper for the Lewis & Clark bar,
>then get a new lawyer."
>
>Dominic Antonellis, the President of Necco, says that Senator Dorgan has
>it all wrong.
>
>First of all, he says, Necco is independently run, and
>Necco is not a large company.
>
>"There are 380 candy companies in the United States," he said in an
>interview. "The candy and snack market is a $24 billion market. And five
>companies -- Hershey, M&M, Nestle, Favorite Brands, and Nabisco --
>represent 80 percent of the sale of candies. Of the remaining 375
>companies that are left, we are probably in the middle range."
>
>Antonellis says that Necco bought the company that makes the Clark bar in
>June 1999 for $4.1 million.
>
>"The Clark name for candy is trademarked," he says. "We wrote them a
>letter. We wanted them to recognize that we own the Clark trademark. We
>weren't looking for money. I wanted a conversation with them, to allow
>them to use the mark, but we would have had an interpretation that they
>couldn't go nationwide with the Lewis & Clark bar."
>
>"I have no problem with them selling their product in their area," he
>says.
>
>If he didn't have a problem with selling in North Dakota, why did he
>demand that the Krugers turn over the Lewis & Clark Bar trademark to
>Necco?
>
>"There would have been an assignment back to them" to allow the Krugers to
>market in North Dakota, he says.
>
>Antonellis says he was concerned that Senator Dorgan and his staff did not
>call Necco before taking to the Senate floor. "I believe that is wrong,"
>he says.
>
>But Senator Dorgan says he wants to a put a stop to corporate bullying.
>
>"How often do you hear members come to the floor of the Senate and worry
>about the number of lawsuits in this country?" he asked. "They worry about
>the lawsuits filed by customers against big corporations. What about this
>use of lawyers by a big company trying to put a small company out of
>business? What about that kind of corporate bullying? It is time to stop
>it."
>
>
>Russell Mokhiber is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Corporate Crime
>Reporter. Robert Weissman is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based
>Multinational Monitor. They are co-authors of Corporate Predators: The
>Hunt for MegaProfits and the Attack on Democracy (Monroe, Maine: Common
>Courage Press, 1999, http://www.corporatepredators.org)
>
>(c) Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman
>
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>
>Focus on the Corporation is a weekly column written by Russell Mokhiber
>and Robert Weissman. Please feel free to forward the column to friends or
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>
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>
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               David Lewis
         P.O. Box 3086
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Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, Oregon
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