Here's a blast from the past, I can still remember the pain of getting Bazooka gum out of my hair after a gust of wind blew it across a particularly fine bubble........ A New York judge has decided that Productos Stani, an Argentine company now owned by Cadbury Schweppes PLC, can continue to make Bazooka bubble gum even though its relationship with Topps Co. who made the brand famous had irretrievably broken down some time before.
Topps permitted Productos Stani to make and sell its gum under written agreements made between 1957 and 1985. The companies then signed an agreement in 1996 under which Topps allowed Productos Stani to buy the rights to the legal title of the trade marks "Bazooka," "Topps" and related trade marks in Argentina
The judge disagreed with Topps‘ reasoning that the Argentine company received "only the trademarks for Bazooka gum” and could not use the technology/recipe to make it, saying that it “ran counter to trade mark law”.
The judge ruled any use of Topps‘ technology by Productos Stani after 1996 did not break any contract between the two companies. The Judge stated that “a trademark is merely a symbol of goodwill and cannot be sold or assigned apart from the goodwill it symbolizes." Quite what that has to do with the recipe for the bubble gum escapes me.
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