Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

["Bill Geschwind" <geschwin AT email.unc.edu>]

More about Kinder Eggs and Kinder Chocolate in General:

This question got me thinking a little and prompted me to search a bit
on the web about Kinder chocolate.

Kinder, which is the German word for 'children', is a trademark name for
a range of chocolate products made by the Austrian sweets corporation
Ferrero. If you read German, you can find more about their range of
'Kinder' chocolate products here:

http://www.ferrero-kinder.de/index_html.htm

I also found another site (in German) that really made me laugh:

http://www.heise.de/newsticker/data/psz-18.12.01-000/

In essence the Austrian company Ferrero, which owns the 'Kinder'
trademark for their line of chocolate products took exception to a
Viennese company named MediaClan, which was using the domain kinder.at
as a 'portal for parents and children,' and promptly (late November
2000) sued them for trademark infringement, claiming that this domain
damaged their numerous valuable properties relating to the term
'kinder'. According to this article, this suit caused quite a bit of
uproar, with many Europeans both laughing at the ridiculousness of
trying to trademark such a common word as "Kinder" (children) as well as
being outraged by a corporation having the gall to try to do something
like this. Ferrero corporation then lost the suit in lower courts, on
the grounds that in spite of the degree of familiarity with the
trademark 'kinder,' that term is still primarily used in common usage to
designate young, minor people (i.e., children) and not grocery products.
Ferrero corporation is apparently planning to appeal this decision.

Now, doesn't this all sound just too familiar???

- Bill

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dallas Smith [mailto:dallas.smith AT pobox.com] 
> Sent: Wednesday, May 29, 2002 8:49 AM
> To: InterNetWorkers
> Subject: [internetworkers] Re: Cheese, Wine and Chocolate
> 
> 
> While we're speaking of chocolate, I had a kinder-egg for the 
> first time a couple weeks ago.  They're chocolate eggs with a 
> plastic egg in the middle, and in the plastic egg is a toy 
> you put together.  The chocolate was excellent.  I was told 
> they're made in Germany or Japan, but does anyone know if any 
> stores here sell them by chance? Thanks, Dallas
> --
> Dallas Smith
> dallas.smith AT pobox.com
> http://www.ibiblio.org/~sallad
> 
> 
> ---
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