It seems that, recently, Hershey filed a lawsuit due to international candy, some of them at least, having extremely similar packaging/names. This story actually has an image of the British candy, where two of them are almost copies of Hershey brand candies. As a part of this, the story also points out that British candy will no longer be imported to the US, but this is NOT about “squashing competition” but rather, it’s about not importing candy that VIOLATES COPYRIGHT LAW! Let me put it a bit more clearly. You create a product named World’s Best Chocolate Bar, with a specific design on the wrapper. Later, you find a product made in another country with the same design/colors, and named World’s Best Chocolate. You then push to not have it imported, so that your consumers are not confused by the chocolate that mimics yours. Why are you the bad guy? That’s exactly what happened here, as you can see in the image in the story that there are British candies named Maltesers (as opposed to Malteser), KitKat (not even trying now), or Toffee Crisp using a font that is very similar to what’s used for the Reese’s candy bar.
When did the world get to a point where protecting your copyrighted brands is bad? Why are we expected to let anyone do whatever they want, rather than standing up for what is our? I’ll tell you, when students were no longer taught right from wrong, it started. When they were taught that simply trying out for a team means you got on the team, it got worse. When students saw everyone getting a ribbon, and no one being marked as better than others in a competition, it was almost done. But when the idiocy got to a point where you actually have people disqualified from a contest because they win too often, or students being allowed to not study, then successfully say they failed because the teacher hates them, rather than them being lazy, it was over. We now live in a world where we are expected to let others have our stuff, let them do whatever they want with our ideas, and not complain. Personally? I’m tired of it, and I say we start calling out the idiots who demonize a company for doing exactly what they would do if they were in Hershey’s place. I plan to keep buying Hershey products, even if just to spite the idiots who feel anyone should be able to use any name they want and steal ideas that are protected.