Pretzel Company's Owners Allege Tax Lawyer Got Lost in Twists of IP Law

"In October 2006, Pepperidge Farms and Snack Factory entered into a product development agreement that the Wilsons call one-sided. They say it gave Pepperidge the right to patent pretzel crackers that were slight variations on products made with Snack Factory's intellectual property, and provided Snack Factory no "meaningful" compensation for the use of its intellectual property.

"In September 2007, Snack Factory, Baptista's and Pepperidge Farms entered into a manufacturing agreement that the Wilsons call ambiguous about channels of distribution, pricing and development of new product lines. "No reasonable counsel would have advised a similarly situated client to accept the agreement. To the contrary, competent counsel would have explained that Snack Factory had no business reason to license its valuable intellectual property to Pepperidge on such terms," they allege.

"Snack Factory took the position that the agreement allowed Pepperidge Farms to make its pretzel crackers only in original and white cheddar flavors and in six-ounce packages. But after executing the agreement, Pepperidge Farms filed several patent applications for pretzel crackers that were slight variations on the ones patented by Snack Factory."

Save this to show the next person who thinks Free/Open Source is weird and scary-- the FOSS world is a haven of sanity and reason compared to the "normal" business world-- ed.

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