Attention Marijuana Users: Hershey™ Doesn’t Want Your Business
I never thought this day would come. But when greed and idiocy converge, the effects can be catastrophic.
So I guess Hershey Co. has nothing better to do than piss off stoners around the world, which is foolish for reasons so obvious they need not be stated. And all they're asking for is $100,000 from a man who is now either destitute due to legal fees and forfeiture, or has buried his assets so deep that neither DEA nor Hershey's will ever see a dollar.
Suddenly those irresistible Hershey's Cookies & Cream™ bars don't sound so good. If Nestle™ has a decent white chocolate product, I can cost Hershey $50 a year on my own. Who's with me?
SAN JOSE, Calif. - Hershey Co. has sued a Lafayette man who admitted to making marijuana-laced candy and soft drinks, claiming his products violated the company's trademarks.I'm not an expert in trademark law, but those don’t sound like Hershey products to me.
Kenneth Affolter, 40, was sentenced in March to more than five years in prison for manufacturing forbidden treats with names like Stoney Rancher, Rasta Reese's and Keef Kat. [MSNBC]
Hershey's suit, filed earlier this month in U.S. District Court in San Jose, accuses Affolter of trademark infringement, trademark dilution and unfair competition.Unfair competition!? To whatever pathetic extent this man actually competed with Hershey, he's now been taken out of commission by the Drug Enforcement Administration. If there's anything unfair going on here, it's the incarceration of a man who provided marijuana edibles to sick people.
So I guess Hershey Co. has nothing better to do than piss off stoners around the world, which is foolish for reasons so obvious they need not be stated. And all they're asking for is $100,000 from a man who is now either destitute due to legal fees and forfeiture, or has buried his assets so deep that neither DEA nor Hershey's will ever see a dollar.
Suddenly those irresistible Hershey's Cookies & Cream™ bars don't sound so good. If Nestle™ has a decent white chocolate product, I can cost Hershey $50 a year on my own. Who's with me?
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Finally we see their true color... How could you Hershey?
I admit, they were my favorite childhood candymakers... but now not so much...
This is just the Hershey corp trying to make a quick buck. But I doubt $100,000 is even worth it, and I doubt this guy sold THAT much of his medical 'candies'. But it seriously seems like Hershey doesn't even know what the guy they are suing was really doing... They are suing him wrongly, and under false pretenses...
He was making Medical Cannabis candies. Sold only in medical cannabis dispensaries, only to medical cannabis patients. These were for medical purposes, not candy purposes. It was made to be a tasty way to take their meds, with silly cleaver names that really don't violate Hershey's trademark one bit. I think they are changed enough to be classified as a comical spoof. I've seen far more trademark infringement at my local grocery store's generics section.
"Hershey's suit, filed earlier this month in U.S. District Court in San Jose, accuses Affolter of trademark infringement, trademark dilution and unfair competition."
Ok, "Stoney Rancher, Rasta Reese's and Keef Kat" are HARDLY infringement on their trademark, and any judge that would give them that, is doing a great disservice to the country/american people. Those names are virtually more than 50% altered spoofs.
And "unfair competition" is COMPLETE bullshit. First of all, this guy's products WERE NOT anything like competition... These were not candies sold to anyone at any store... These were just medications sold at medical cannabis dispensaries... Kid's could not buy this, and no one without a medical cannabis ID could buy these.
I really hope Hershey either withdraws their suit, or loses this... It's utterly ridiculous...
But hey, if Hershey doesn't want pothead's business... fine they will lose it. They will lose all those potheads with the munchies for candy.
There is always Nestle, and they make plenty of good sweets too.
Besides, the guy Affolter, is already serving time, unjustly, for selling the medical cannabis candies. That is already more punishment than he deserved... he was only helping people.
Seriously, Hershey... I'm not going to buy your products anymore. That might be hard... but I'll find alternatives if I need a chocolate fix... =P
i hope their stock falls
Totally agreed. I dont smoke pot, and this is still the stupidest thing i've ever heard. I hope their stock falls so much they are forced into bankrupcy and the person leading this to die
The guy made well over a
The guy made well over a million, in selling weed and selling just fake hershy products, He prob used the same ingredients and way to make the bars thats why they decided to sue him, And it is unfair competition, If this guy got really big like he already was, he already had a site and sold them to medicinal and non medicinal users. So technically he was a drug dealer, if he really wanted to he would call up hershy or even the head of the medicinal weed clubs, and let them know he wants to do a project like that, and he could of done it legally with the permissions of hershy and sold it legally only to the pot clubs and wat not. So technically the DEA only wanted the weed and money, and Hershy only wanted this guy to suffer for fucking with their business. I garrentee he would of been bigger then the hershy company if u gave him a year or 2 to ship around world. And did you see the style of each bar? same picture background and and style. and i wouldnt be suprised if they taste and look like the actual chocolate bars. As a user, i say he deserved the 5 years jail time, but not infringment laws if he would of simply asked. And hell i would spend at least $1000's a year on that guys bars me alone, and i garrentee ur 50$ isnt even gonna matter when hershy sees thousands of users switching to marijuana hershy bars. Cuz those fucking chocolate bars look fucking amazing, and the 10x ones seem like even 1 of em will knock u on ur ass like theres no tmrw. u wont even get 3x worth thc if u blaze for 3 hours. lmfao, its a fucking smart idea man, you dont wnana kill ur lungs so u eat and he turned his whole dealership to a medicinal chocolate and drink factory, sold to some pot clubs and illigal users and got his self messed over if it were me, i garrentee i would of done better =D .
Hershey is a death dealer
Their candy helps to kill many more people each year than marijuana.
Real heads should boycott
Real heads should boycott Hershey and instead buy fair-trade organic REAL chocolate. As should all other chocolate lovers.
Pot Candy Maker Apes hershey labels
The law regarding trademarks and copyright is clear
>> if it isn't your label , dont use it.
The Pot Candy maker went to great trouble to make sure his labels resembled the hershey ones to the finest detail, save for the minor spoof spelling. Unless you were looking for these minute differences, the pot candy label and the authentic hershey label appear identical. Imagine if someone ate a whole dope laced candy bar and didn't exactly get the joke?
Hershey does not need Mr Addolter to thrive , but he sure needs them to thrive.Thats how parasites operate. He is 40 years old, he knew what he was doing, offering a drugged up version of a kids candy,
This was hardly " comedy" \
or " fair comment"
or even " parody" done as a gag .
No. he professionally produced and distributed a complete product line of cannabis chocolate products aping the hershey ediface. And he got caught and he got sentenced to five years in prison. Ha ha thats pretty funny he would go to all that trouble and expence knowing full well it was against the law,
So the feds thought enough of his comedy kitchen to send him to jail for half a decade.
Now that he is set up at a fixed address, it should be easy for Hershey to serve infringement damage papers on him,. If he loses the court action, which he most likely will, he will lose his home to pay that settlement. Or the courts will order his home sold for him, after all, he is their guest... So he will step out of jail with no place to live.- and it will be his own fault
Rippeth thee off, thou shalt get ripped off theyself. trhats the law of the jungle RE: the 420 community to boycott sweets? not in any significant way and not for any significant period of time. We see from here Mr Mark Emery ( the Prince of Pot ) spending his last few weeks of freedom defending a trademark thief prior to joining him behind bars for his own unauthorised pot industry enterprises-- also I assume a joke gone wrong
Both Mr Affolter andf Mr Emery are good examples of what pot will do to you over time.. seriously errode your reasoning powers. Pretty much how Harry Anslinger said it would during the early days of cannabis prohibition.
So glorious 420 society- who will be the first to offer heat score Mr Affolter a place to live when he steps out of jail and who will donate $150.000 for legal fees to Mr Emerys futile defence fund ?
Somebody?
Anybody?
sounds like parody to me...
Sounds like parody to me -- parody it is often the case that the original design is closely mimicked. If only out of free speech concerns I don't think we want to go down the road of diluting that definition.
I've heard these products were made for medical marijuana dispensaries, though I haven't closely verified that. Perhaps David Guard in our office can fill us in on what he's heard about that.
David Borden, Executive Director
StoptheDrugWar.org: the Drug Reform Coordination Network
Washington, DC
http://stopthedrugwar.org
A dark cloud
I'm thankful that the internet makes it possible to interact with people like "qdrewirtsc qdrewirtsc” without actually having to meet them. I think it would be depressing to meet such an angry, uninformed, and bigoted person (who apparently has a lot of time on his/her hands). "qdrewirtsc qdrewirtsc” obviously has no stake in this cause, and wanted to post only to dissuade and demoralize anyone on here actually looking to be responsible consumers by boycotting a company who is pursuing an overtly vindictive lawsuit.
First, copyright laws are not as black and white as "qdrewirtsc qdrewirtsc" suggests...that's why we have copyright lawyers.
Second, these goods were sold in dispensaries across California and Oregon (to my knowledge...if I am wrong, someone please clarify). They were not sold alongside Reese's Cups in the local 7/11, and the argument that someone could eat a whole bar without "getting the joke" is absurd. Not only would someone have to go out of their way to come across the cleverly named products, but the actual packaging looks only vaguely like the Hershey products. And anyone who claims that pot-laced candies don't taste like pot-laced candies (and could reasonably be mistaken for a Hershey product) obviously hasn't had much experience with eating cannabis.
The fact is that this guy has already lost his house and assets via the drug kingpin forfeiture laws...something to the tune of $300-400 thousand if my memory serves me correctly. Hershey is adding on an extra $100,000 for a purely vindictive lawsuit. Mr. Affolter didn't rely on the success of the Hershey Company to sell his goods. His product was laced with pot...do you really need a multi-million dollar a year ad agency to sell weed?
Kenneth Affolter sold edible, non-carcinogenic, medicine to state-approved dispensaries. The fact that he is now spending half a decade in federal prison is outrageous enough; Hershey is just adding insult to injury.
you come off
like the guy is the pied piper of pot! The guy decided to tango with the big boys, you do that you must be willing to pay the big boy price if you get caught.
Who are you kidding at any rate? The man was caught with 189g's in cash and three automatic weapons, and you appear to think he was performing a world service for the Ed Rosenthal, Angel Raich's and countless other pot advocates of the world. Not a friggin' chance. He was growing to line the pockets of Mr. Affolter, pure and simple.
dangerous business
A medical marijuana grower in California was killed earlier this year, so it's no wonder that anyone involved in the trade might choose to carry a weapon. As for the amount of money, a lot of people are using medical marijuana now, so of course the business is going to generate a fair amount of cash. Whether his motives were altruistic or not is not very relevant to the question at hand. I have heard that he was providing these candies to the medical marijuana market, and on my tours of medical marijuana coops I have indeed seen this sort of thing available.
David Borden, Executive Director
StoptheDrugWar.org: the Drug Reform Coordination Network
Washington, DC
http://stopthedrugwar.org
Anslinger!?
"Pretty much how Harry Anslinger said it would during the early days of cannabis prohibition."
You're invoking Harry Anslinger to make a point? A notorious liar and race-baiting demogogue so toxic even the brave drug war cheerleaders who carry out his vile legacy dare not speak that name.
Anslinger epitomizes the racism and greed from which this endless civil war was born. Those who share your views typically pretend he never existed, as his words and character are just impossible to defend.
You clearly have no sympathy for those who challenge the boundaries of our ever-expanding drug laws. But do you share eagerly in the tremendous cost of martying them? Is this where you want your government to put its precious resources?
ya ur somewat tru. but its
ya ur somewat tru. but its not like he'll go out and sell a munchy way to a 12 year old, its common sence. And if you think about it they did copy hershy to every detail except the names like i said earlier so i garrentee thats the only reason their sueing, cuz of infringement, i garrentee if you made the bars the same name same colour but different style ur set to go. He could of made every chocolate bar the same shape and look and just have different labels for his own company, and hed be set instead of paying thousands to get someone to copy hershys backgrounds and make it as ur own. They payed millions for those trade marks and hes paying 30$ to a random junkie to copy hershy backgrounds and make em funny and sell able. If he put a bit more cash into it he could of had his own chocolate bars and sold em legally if he really wanted. cuz the jolly ranchers and chocolate bars and even Jones bottles with the pepsi logo and coka cola logos were right down to the same, hes just lucky coka cola and jones and even jolly ranchers dont sue him. He still has alot of shit to come.
Correction:
I just realized that "qdrewirtsc qdrewirtsc" is the default name assigned to anonymous users. My earlier post, "A dark cloud" was in response to, "Pot Candy Maker Apes hershey labels."
*and no, I wasn't high when I wrote it
***I was high when I caught the mistake.
We'll fix this
What a strange problem. In the meantime, feel free to register.
Copyright is Black & White
Actually the Copyright laws are black and white,
Copyright lawyers exist because people play shades of gray
they are world laws and not mere regional US laws
so these laws apply to california and oregon
the same way they do in the rest of the world- you can read these for yourself or pay a copyright lawyer to read them to you. The choice is yours
Hershey will probably drop the lawsuit, the pot candy maker has no more money after unsuccessfully defending himself.. More because Hershey made their point of distancing themselves from this for -profit drugged candy maker: it will have nothing to do with a 420 boycott-
no 420 boycott has ever worked
during 70 years of prohibition
BTW--I'm angry, uninformed and bigotted?
I didn;t think a mid day stoner would be able to
put such a complicated three insult sentence together
congratulations !
boycott them that totally
boycott them that totally sucks that they go after this guy after the government ruined his life
they do have to protect their trademark
Companies do this all the time. If they don't protect their trademarks they may lose them. But their food is more or less crap. Fair trade organic chocolate is better.
What he deserves
The guy is getting exactly what he deserves. Plain and simple, he broke Federal Trademark law, which is in place for a reason...and it is black and white.
Stoners need to smarten up. Marijuana will never be legalized if stunts like this keep happening. Trust me, I'm all for legalization, but the way people are going about it is a complete joke. In order to get things done you don't boycott the big U.S. corporations and side with lawbreakers. You work with the powers that be, not against them. Stoners are just showing the world that they don't respect copyright laws or trademark laws. And how much clout does that give you? None.
These laws are very important...and I'm sure those at StopTheDrugWar would agree. I doubt they'd put up with anyone stealing their site content or pretending to be them! They're protected just the same under these laws, which is why they need to be followed.
Bottom line, this guy only wanted to line his own pockets, not "help" people with medical marijuana. And he chose to run his business in a way that is nothing more than pathetic, so now he's stuck in court instead of being able to "help" people. Trust me, you don't need to have a magical brand name in order to be able to sell marijuana chocolate. You could call them Shit Sticks and people would still buy them! Why? Because they're marijuana and chocolate and there's no market competition! This ficktard is simply getting what he deserves.
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