It's not even Easter, and already I am up in arms.
There is a battle in Europe over who has the right to make chocolate bunnies--
More specifically, can a company trademark their version of the chocolate bunny.
Lindt makes the cutest little rabbit, sitting on its haunches,wrapped in gold foil, ears on alert, wearing a red ribbon around it's neck, with a little bell attached to it.
Lindt sells indecent amounts of this calorie ridden, tooth decaying, hunks of nirvana.
An Austrian company called Hauswirth sells a chocolate bunny sitting on it's haunches, ears on alert, wrapped in gold foil, a red ribbon wrapped around it's neck, too. There is no bell.
Lindt trademarked their bunny a few years ago. Now they say Hauswirth can't make their bunny, because Lindt owns the style.
Hauswirth has taken umbrage and has hauled in lawyers who say the issue of trademarking 3D shapes has always been 'murky waters'. Of course you can see why the minute you think about that, right? I mean I know I was thinking about all those difficulties trademarking 3D shapes last night in the shower.
One of the difficulties the lawyers point out that to make a chocolate bunny like this certain things, like the long upright ears, have to be there for the shape to even sit properly...or something.
Do you get the drift? I do. But then, I am easily called to attention when to comes to chocolate bunnies.
Haiswirth is also pointing out that chocolate bunnies are generic, and who the hell does Lindt think they are even trying to restrict the production of chocolate bunnies, greedy pigs....or something to that effect.
"Bad faith" in trademarking practices (like wanting a monopoly on those cute chocolate bunnies--improper conduct) is also being called into question here.
This is a serious issue. Quantity of chocolate bunnies is being threatened here.
If Lindt gets to stop Hauswirth there will be that many fewer bunnies.
Who the hell does Lindt think they are? Someone needs to remind Lindt that they did not create the squatting bunny. They did not invent gold foil. They are certainly not alone in the chocolate making industry--
I'm shocked, just shocked, I tell you, over Lindt's greed--
Just picture the sight of the Lindt corporate bigwigs, ties askew, red in the face, nostrils bulging, in a state of cardiac arrest over chocolate bunnies. THEIR chocolate bunnies, goddammit.
Hi there. My name is Angela and I'm an online editor with the Orange County Register. I wanted to let you know that we've added a link to your blog on our Web site and are also pulling an RSS feed from it, as we do with a range of local bloggers.
Please let me know if you do not want your blog linked to from our site. And if you know of any other local bloggers we should be linking to, please let me know!
Thank you,
Angela Potter
The Orange County Register
Posted by: Angela Potter | June 22, 2009 at 03:44 PM