Hershey claims trademark misuse could ‘glamourise’ drug abuse

The Hershey Company has sued a Californian company over the alleged unauthorised use of the ‘Jolly Rancher’ trademark which it says could be seen to “glamourise illicit drug use and drug abuse”.

In a lawsuit filed at the US District Court for the Central District of California, Hershey claimed that Urban Stash Spot Clothing has infringed the ‘Jolly Rancher’ trademark on its range of clothing.

Jolly Rancher is a fruit-flavoured sweet that has been sold since the 1950s. Finnish company Huhtamaki Finance owns 12 US trademarks related to Jolly Rancher, registered between 1950 and 2012.

But for the last two decades Hershey has been granted a licence to both manufacture and sell the product in the US. Under the terms of the licence, Hershey can also enforce the ‘Jolly Rancher’ trademarks.

According to the complaint, Urban Stash is selling products bearing the ‘Jolly Rancher’ mark including t-shirts, hoodies and jogging trousers, which the clothing company has called “Sponsor Shirts” and “Sponsor Joggers”.

On its website, ussclothing.com, the clothing company also sells products that allegedly glamourise drug use, Hershey said in its complaint.

Hershey said that although those t-shirts do not directly mention Jolly Rancher it could nevertheless tarnish the image of its brand.

Following a request from Hershey to cease the sale of the allegedly infringing products, Jermario Fields, a chief executive at Urban Stash, agreed to stop the sale of such products.

Fields claimed that only one pair of trousers and a shirt was manufactured and that they were only “sample items”.

But Hershey said that the items had continued to be advertised for sale on social media site Instagram, which will “cause damage and irreparable harm to Hershey and the valuable reputation and goodwill of its licensed marks with purchasers and consumers”.

Hershey filed its lawsuit on October 20.

A spokesperson for Hershey told WIPR: “The unauthorised use of our ‘Jolly Rancher’ trademark infringes on and dilutes that trademark and creates a false endorsement, false designation of origin and creates unfair competition.  We believe this will confuse consumers and tarnish our ‘Jolly Rancher’ mark.”