Court To Sen. Hershey: Tear Down Those Signs

Here's a play on an old children's riddle: What's brown and white and read all over? The not-so-childish answer is Maryland state Sen. Steve Hershey's campaign signs. However, on July 16, 2014, Judge William D. Quarles of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland in The Hershey Company, et al. v. Friends of Steve Hershey, et al, case number 1:14- cv-01825, preliminarily enjoined the senator from using the brown and white campaign signs The Hershey Company contended infringed upon its Hershey's trade dress and ordered him to remove all infringing forms of the signs from the Internet and to take down all infringing outdoor signs and posters. Not a sweet outcome for the senator, who, for years, has been embroiled in an on-again, off-again dispute with The Hershey Company over signs and logos he has used in his different political campaigns.

The battle began in 2002 when Steve Hershey ran for county commissioner in Queen Anne's County, Maryland. The Hershey Company wrote to the politician at that time asking him to stop using campaign materials that depicted the word "Hershey" printed in bold white font on a dark brown background, contending that they violated the famous Hershey trade dress. Use of these campaign materials ceased after the election. In 2010, Hershey ran for state delegate using a campaign logo and signs similar to those used in the 2002 campaign. Hershey again contacted Hershey about the allegedly infringing use, allowing him to use his existing materials for the primary election only.

At the conclusion of the primary elections, the company sent a letter to Hershey itemizing terms agreed to in a phone conversation, specifying that Hershey agreed to change the design of his materials for the general election, "particularly the font and color" so that they would be "materially different from" the Hershey trade dress. After being appointed to a vacant state Senate seat in 2013, Sen. Hershey began campaigning to be elected to the state Senate using a campaign logo with a Maryland flag in dual tone brown as the background with the word "Hershey" in white font prominently displayed on the front below which the words "State Senate" appeared in smaller font.

Again, The Hershey Company contacted the senator objecting to the new campaign logo. When the senator refused to stop using the new logo, the company filed suit in federal court for trademark infringement, breach of contract and other related claims, which was...