Hershey's suit with Mars underscores color's importance

The use of the color is an attempt to “trade on Hershey’s goodwill and to confuse consumers as to the origin, source or sponsorship of defendant’s product,” the Hershey, Pennsylvania-based company said in its complaint.

Mars filed its own complaint yesterday against Hershey in Virginia federal court, claiming, “orange is commonly used by third parties on packaging as a generic flavor designation for peanuts, peanut butter or peanut butter flavoring.”

This is both amusing and serious. In the hyper-competitive candy business, packaging matters, big time. And a big part of packaging is color. One wonders if Hershey will prevail in its legal efforts to claim orange. But given how ingrained the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup is in consumer culture, you can see why Hershey thinks this is a battle worth fighting.