No, it was settled in 1994. Never shook my fist once. never got upset over it. Just thought is was foolish; but lawyers have their ways. Would have been laughed out of a criminal court.
Then the lowest CD must be a perfect business model. The products sold/sell like hotcakes to this day. Even a steer can try.
Oh, and one reason it never upset me was that the monetary amounts became much more aligned to reality.
" Liebeck Didn’t Get ‘Millions’ From McDonald’s
A month after the trial, the judge reduced the jury’s punitive damages award of $2.7 million to $640,000. He reasoned that this amount was approximately three times the compensatory damages. He also said the case “was not a runaway” case and that the revised amount would be “appropriate to punish and deter” McDonald’s for the safety hazards posed by its hot coffee. However, the parties entered into a settlement for less than $640,000 (the exact amount is unknown) in exchange for McDonald’s dropping its planned appeal."
Makes it seem more just for both sides. So, I’ll settle my suit there. Hope everyone’s happy. Toodles!
I’ve had it, don’t like it, and I’m not a huge coffee snob. I don’t like Starbucks, either. I don’t like most anything at McDonald’s. More for the hordes
CCE
(Keyrock the unfrozen caveman lawyer; your world frightens & confuses me)
48
Looking for quickie settlements. I worked for a pharma company that was simultaneously being sued by the attorneys general of 3 states because…
One argued that the packaging, despite having a silhouette of the dropper showing its actual size, somehow mislead consumers into picking that product because the box was approximately 0.5 cm taller than the dropper bottle. This is an Rx product and consumers have zero ability to select based on viewing the packaging - it’s prescribed and they just pick it up.
One argued that the dropper, according to their testing, had on average only 9.75 days’ worth of drops instead of 10, the product being instilled into the eye 4 times per day, and therefore we were cheating the consumer by not giving them enough of the product. We were alleged to be providing 39 drops instead of 40.
One argued that the dropper, according to their testing, had on average slightly over 10.5 days’ worth of drops instead of 10 (same product being instilled 4 times per day) and therefore we were cheating the consumer by selling them more product than they really needed - at the same price as the product in the other state, deemed to be short of product, by the way. We were alleged to be providing 42 drops instead of 40.
(There were many more of these states’ attempts at money grabs, but at that time it was funny in a sad way to see such contradictory cases going forward at the same time, on the same product)
Remember, though, it’s only 95% of lawyers that give the other 5% of us a bad name.
What I described above was state governments looking for cash settlements on spurious claims, but there were plenty others from private law firms like the one in this story.
2 Likes
CCE
(Keyrock the unfrozen caveman lawyer; your world frightens & confuses me)
49
Bingo, folks. When I told my engineering buddies I was going to law school they started sending me lawyer jokes. I collected them and at one point my WORD doc was over 250 pages.
Sadly I lost that doc in a laptop transition at some point.
Fond memories.
Edit - also sadly, though, although there are a surfeit of truly funny lawyer jokes, there are no patent lawyer jokes, so I had to write my own for opening presentations and the like. Some I had to steal from “engineer jokes” and grind off the serial numbers.
CCE
(Keyrock the unfrozen caveman lawyer; your world frightens & confuses me)
53
Yes it is, and it’s a big screw up by whichever group it is at TGIF Franchising that is supposed to be monitoring Inventure’s usage of the TGIF marks. You don’t just nakedly license your mark and let the guy do whatever he wants with it. That’s one way to lose control of your mark.
Besides the obvious, that violator
25% MORE CHEESEflavor
could also be a problem.
Given the font styling, it’s easy to argue the consumer would think there’s 25% more cheese than some prior version of the product. In addition, how would one even quantify more cheese “flavor”? Panel testing? It’s probably meaningless in terms of any fact-based change to cheese “flavor”. But maybe it’s just puffery?
Then of course you have to wonder at the interplay between the fact that it is supposedly both, at the same time, the Original Flavor and MOAR CHEEZE flavor. Maybe it’s got more of the same thing?
“Silly (wabbit) marketers, what will they think of next”.
I suppose it could be considered false advertising. It’s not what I would think of when someone says mozzarella sticks, anyway. It’s some sort of cheetos type snack.
1 Like
CCE
(Keyrock the unfrozen caveman lawyer; your world frightens & confuses me)
55
LoL - I can’t find that exact one on Amazon, but here’s the back panel of another package of mozzarella cheese sticks sold by Inventure. This one doesn’t claim either “original flavor” or “MORE CHEESE flavor” on the front, just Mozzarella Sticks. However, it does also say “mozzarella flavored” which could be an argument they’re putting the consumer on notice.
But on the back panel it says they’re “loaded with the savory flavor of mozzarella cheese”, while the ingredients admit there’s no mozz and as far as I can tell, nothing toward “the savory flavor of mozzarella cheese” unless it’s the yeast extract.
The majority of storefronts on Amazon selling the Inveture mozz sticks do not include an image of the back panel, so people ordering from Amazon can’t know in advance they’re not getting mozzarella sticks. I’m guessing Amazon will make them pull the product or at least show the back panel and provide disclaimer.
Edit to add
Thanks Joe. All along I thought they were mozzarella sticks (like you’d get at the restaurant) and didn’t understand they were crisps. Not sure I would have figured this out if I was ordering from Amazon?
An engineer, a mathematician, and a physicist are at a conference in Scottland. On the train, they pass a field with a mix of black cows and white cows. The engineer proclaims. “Scottland has both white and black cows!” The mathemtician tuts. “We know Scottland has some cows who have at least one black side and some that have at least one white side.”
The physicist sighs. “Ok, first, let’s assume all cows are spheres…”
I took a course in Discrete Math. But I told someone and failed.
I like John Grisham. Think he’s pretty much on the up and up in legal matters. I’ve learned a lot from his books. Some of you might disagree, but I’d trust him as my lawyer.
I guess my point would be that I don’t buy McD’s coffee because it’s so great, but because it 's hot enough to take to a construction job and still be hot when you got there, and thereafter. I buy it for the hot. There’s a McD’s almost anywhere you go; so you’ll get the same coffee in Phoenix as you do Chicago. It’s obvious their consistency is excellent, as they still sell hot hot coffee to this day. Make fun of the quality all you want. Hard to argue with success, though. It is LCD thinking (like Lite beer), but it sure works. Now that they make Yeti cups and the like, I now just go to my local gas/convenience store (Kwik Trip) and load up there. I don’t do many outdoor jobs anymore, but when I go to make wood, or some other such , I like some hot jo.