But PEZ and their attorneys aren’t automatons, I would think they could protect the trademark by licensing the Museum’s use of the trademark in promoting Pez products and paraphernalia for a trival fee, even renew it annually to allow review and thus preserving their right to prosecute knock-off pez products that are obviously infringing. Good PR move, the museum promotes continued interest in the product, and Pez protects their mark.

But then again, that would be civil.

“If you had one food to eat for the rest of your life — what would it be?”

“Easy — Cherry Pez.”

Not only was this in the movie, but it was featured in the movies’ trailers.

I wrote Pez about this, figuring they would be wise about this in the aftermath of the whole Reces Pieces debacle. Wise, because currently in the stores at the time of the movie — YOU COULD NOT GET CHERRY PEZ!

So I asked them if they planned to restock in light of the success of the movie, the trailers, the cultural resonance, etc.

I got a form letter back telling me why lemon pez was good enough for me.

Urrgh.

As for the clowns in the discussion above who say the candy tastes horrible — not to kids. Its like watching a Full House episode years later and realizing its awful.

Seriously though, this was an absolute no-brainer, screwed up by incompetent legal advice. #13 and #12 have it right: license them the damn trademark.

It’s probably not too late, even.

And for anybody planning a trip to the museum in Easton, PA, it is sadly gone. I’m not sure if they closed due to lack of business or lawsuit or what, but I was in town a few years ago and intended to stop by, only to see it had closed.

Morans.

My wife says Pez shouldn’t be suing them – they should be giving them an award!; after people visit the museum, they are in a Pez buying mood.

“For what is a company profited,
if it gain control of its trademark, and lose its own soul?”
—————————–

Almost by strict definition, companies do not have Souls.

The prime deception (whether by PEZ or ENRON) is making us consumers believe that they care, want and/or love us…when in reality, companies only need us so that we’ll buy their particular products.

And yes, PEZ candy itself is truly rancid.

source:

http://www.ytmnd.com/contests/?contest_id=6

Sounds like the Pez people do have a good point — the museum owners created a 7 foot tall thing that looks like a Pez dispenser, and actually named it a Pez dispenser, and made certificates stating that the items dispensed from it were dispensed from the “world’s biggest Pez dispenser”.

No they didn’t. They made a 7 foot tall thing that looks like a Pez dispenser and named it the worlds largest dispenser of Pez and considering it dispenses Pez, that’s perfectly correct.

But it isn’t a Pez dispenser, it’s a low budget thing made to resemble one.

It is a Pez dispenser. It dispenses Pez. Hell if you put a whole bunch of Pez in your mouth and spit them at someone you are a Pez Dispenser.

I didn’t see anything asking them to change the name of the museum, just asking them to stop calling their home woodshop project a Pez dispenser.

No they asked them to destroy the 7″ high worlds largest dispenser of Pez and they are suing them.

My bet is they’re doing this because they’re planning on opening their own museum and they don’t want to have any competition. I can understand why they’d do this, but it’s still evil.

PEZ has every right to asset control over how and where it’s name and all that are being used for profit. It does seem heavy handed, at least as it is written up here. But how do we know PEZ did try to come up with a license agreement but simply could not? Or the museum is being difficult?

Or whatever, they still have the right to control the PEZ name and copyright, end-of-story. If the museum owners don’t like it, pay homage to something else they have control over and/or can legally show and promote.

Frankly, though, the idea of paying homage to any retail item is stupid. It’s not art, it’s not anything but stuff you buy. It’s just junk that is sold.

How the heck did that turn into the right to control what anybody does with a Pez dispenser ever?

I used to love orange pez because it tasted just like children’s aspirin. Pez kept me from forming an aspirin habit as a kid.

Itsumishi @20 It is a Pez dispenser. It dispenses Pez. Hell if you put a whole bunch of Pez in your mouth and spit them at someone you are a Pez Dispenser.

That is so completely brilliant. Now all the museum has to do is find a really tall guy and pay him to spit pez out at visitors, and he’ll be the new world’s largest dispenser of pez.

No, they don’t. Trademark law does not allow you to just stop anyone from using your registered mark for any reason; there are strict limits to when you can do so.

US trademark law specifically allows you to freely use someone else’s trademark to identify that trademarked product. i.e., “we have a museum filled with PEZ dispensers”, or just “PEZ Museum” is perfectly legal, so long as the museum actually contains real PEZ products.

From The Express-Times of Easton:

“I’m not an ogre,” said [Scott] McWhinnie, who has headed the company in Orange, Conn., for nearly 20 years. “We lose our trademark if we allow it to be used improperly. We are obligated to prosecute if it’s going to be misused.”

Seems like a Catch 22 if you’re going to market a collectible item, and then not allow people to identify the collectible item by it’s best known name. Just try to describe a Pez dispenser without using the name Pez.

The candy’s disgusting, anyway. The dispensers are the product.

I didn’t see anything asking them to change the name of the museum, just asking them to stop calling their home woodshop project a Pez dispenser.