Resale laws?

[AndrewS2008]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?

 

[AndrewS2008]

Actual question.

Not sure if this is the correct place for this question or not, but here goes. While dining at a local restaurant I purchased a brownie. It was individually packaged in a plastic wrapper with a small company's name and info. I commented to my wife how much it tasted like the brownie mix I make at home. I scanned the qr code on wrapper and sure enough it took me straight to a popular box brand mix. The qr code has since been removed from the brownie packaging. This made me curious what the law was with regard to selling a box mix marketed as your own product. I am just curious. Thanks!

 

[quincy]

Not sure if this is the correct place for this question or not, but here goes. While dining at a local restaurant I purchased a brownie. It was individually packaged in a plastic wrapper with a small company's name and info. I commented to my wife how much it tasted like the brownie mix I make at home. I scanned the qr code on wrapper and sure enough it took me straight to a popular box brand mix. The qr code has since been removed from the brownie packaging. This made me curious what the law was with regard to selling a box mix marketed as your own product. I am just curious. Thanks!

What is the name of your state, AndrewS2008, or, if not in the US, what is the name of your country?

Under the First Sale Doctrine in the US, a person can resell a legally purchased product. The person can make and market what they create from the legally purchased product. What cannot be done is to use the other product's trademark.

There are many bakery products that use M&Ms, for example, but, without permission from Mars to use the trademark M&M, the bakery product cannot market the product implying any connection with Mars.

 

[AndrewS2008]

Texas. Thanks for the response. That's basically the same thought I had as well. The only difference is that, in your example M&Ms would be an ingredient in a final product. If someone were to buy M&Ms and repackage them with a personal logo and sell them as W&Ws (or whatever) it would be more in line with my question. And then I thought "what about bake sales?", but I guess that could be a difference between anow individual thing and a commercial venture. Again, thanks for your response. I can accept that answer. I'm just throwing my response out there to get a better understanding.

 

[adjusterjack]

This made me curious what the law was with regard to selling a box mix marketed as your own product. I am just curious. Thanks!

Did it ever occur to you that the bakery that makes the packaged brownies might have a license from the mix supplier allowing them to make the brownies under the bakery's name?

 

[AndrewS2008]

Nope. Could be.

 

[quincy]

Texas. Thanks for the response. That's basically the same thought I had as well. The only difference is that, in your example M&Ms would be an ingredient in a final product. If someone were to buy M&Ms and repackage them with a personal logo and sell them as W&Ws (or whatever) it would be more in line with my question. And then I thought "what about bake sales?", but I guess that could be a difference between anow individual thing and a commercial venture. Again, thanks for your response. I can accept that answer. I'm just throwing my response out there to get a better understanding.

As long as you are not stepping on any patent-toes, copyright-toes, or trademark-toes,* what you do with a product that you legally purchase is pretty much up to you. You need to remember, though, that many of the toes are pretty big, easy to step on and often belong to an entity with a lot of money to spend and a large legal team ready to spend it. Whenever you question whether your own product (or repackaging of another's product) might infringe in some way on another's rights, it is advised that you seek out a personal review by an attorney in your area.


*other laws could potentially come into play with your use of another's product

 

[AndrewS2008]

Quincy, thanks for the respectful and informative responses. That pretty much satisfied my curiosity. Again, this was purely a curiosity based question. Not looking to hurt anyone's business. Heck, I love the brownies, and I don't want to see them go anywhere.

 

[quincy]

... Heck, I love the brownies, and I don't want to see them go anywhere.

Haha. Yes, it is sometimes best not to mess with a good thing.

I am a curious sort, too, so I generally have no problem sating the curiosity of others when I can.

Thank you for the thanks, Andrew.