A craze that seems to have popped up and fizzled away just as fast is the whole candy edible boom.
Of course, they’re still around, but the backlash has caused some lawsuits for copyright infringement.
The latest in line to get in some legal trouble is “Medicated Skittles” and “Zkittlez,” both, obviously, for knocking off the Skittles brand name.
Candy knock-offs came into prominence when weed was still most popular in the black market. But now as the industry is quickly legitimizing, these copyright infringements are coming under fire.
“Mars Wrigley strongly condemns the use of popular candy brands in the marketing and sale of THC products, which is grossly deceptive and irresponsible. The use of Mars Wrigley’s brands in this manner is unauthorized, inappropriate and must cease, especially to protect children from mistakenly ingesting these unlawful THC products.”
Mars Wrigley, the company that makes Skittles, are not only going after these two. There are plenty other copywritten candies that have been knocked off, including Starburst (Starburst Gummies) and Life Savers (Life Savers Medicated Gummies).
The most infamous are the Sour Patch Kids ripoff, Stoney Patch. The more pressing question that all of these candy edibles bring to the table is who exactly they’re marketing to. People of all ages consume candy, but none more so than children.
So there’s a sketchiness to the whole enterprise. Gummy edibles have been around since the dawn of edibles (circa 432 B.C.) but packaging like this is just asking for the attention of younger people, and a line should be drawn in the sand there.
Read more on the story at the Sun Times.
