Ten famous Intellectual Property Disputes - 0 views

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  #1 Mallory Wallace on 04 Oct 12

   

  3. Kellogg Co. v. National Biscuit Co.
  In 1893, a man named Henry Perky began making a pillow-shaped cereal he called Shredded Whole Wheat. John Harvey Kellogg said that eating the cereal was like "eating a whisk broom," and critics at the World Fair in Chicago in 1893 called it "shredded doormat." But the product surprisingly took off. After Perky died in 1908 and his two patents, on the biscuits and the machinery that made them, expired in 1912, the Kellogg Company, then whistling a different tune, began selling a similar cereal. In 1930, the National Biscuit Company, a successor of Perky's company, filed a lawsuit against the Kellogg Company, arguing that the new shredded wheat was a trademark violation and unfair competition. Kellogg, in turn, viewed the suit as an attempt on National Biscuit Company's part to monopolize the shredded wheat market. In 1938, the case was brought to the Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of the Kellogg Company on the grounds that the term "shredded wheat" was not trademarkable, and its pillow shape was functional and therefore able to be copied after the patent had expired.
  
  Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Ten-Famous-Intellectual-Property-Disputes.html#ixzz28LUg5o11

   

  <div class="cArrow"> </div><div class="cContentInner">3. Kellogg Co. v. National Biscuit Co. <br /> In 1893, a man named Henry Perky began making a pillow-shaped cereal he called Shredded Whole Wheat. John Harvey Kellogg said that eating the cereal was like "eating a whisk broom," and critics at the World Fair in Chicago in 1893 called it "shredded doormat." But the product surprisingly took off. After Perky died in 1908 and his two patents, on the biscuits and the machinery that made them, expired in 1912, the Kellogg Company, then whistling a different tune, began selling a similar cereal. In 1930, the National Biscuit Company, a successor of Perky's company, filed a lawsuit against the Kellogg Company, arguing that the new shredded wheat was a trademark violation and unfair competition. Kellogg, in turn, viewed the suit as an attempt on National Biscuit Company's part to monopolize the shredded wheat market. In 1938, the case was brought to the Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of the Kellogg Company on the grounds that the term "shredded wheat" was not trademarkable, and its pillow shape was functional and therefore able to be copied after the patent had expired. <br /> <br /> Read more: <a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Ten-Famous-Intellectual-Property-Disputes.html#ixzz28LUg5o11" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Ten-Famous-Intellectual-Property-Disputes.html#ixzz28LUg5o11</a></div>

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