Hershey Moves to Protect Trademark/Packaging

What might be lightly labeled the "Willie Wonka Wars" are heating up, as Hershey sued Mars this week in a federal Disrict Court for trademark infringement (among other things), accusing the maker of M&Ms of copying Hershey packaging with some Mars' Promise candies.

We now enter a new legal phase of the heated rivalry between former "friends;" Mars' branding of the Dove candies has been directed at taking market share from Hershey from the beginning with subtle attacks on Hershey's use of cheaper cocoa butter substitutes, and Mars setting up shop in the same Pennsylvania neighborhood to take advantage of a Hershey-trained workforce wasn't designed to make the relationship any smoother.