It seems like your Gmail contact information might be more secure than you thought. After failing for a month to identify the maker of “Stoney Patch” gummies, Mondelez Canada, Inc. (MDI), maker of Sour Patch Kids, is asking the court to intervene.
In case you missed our previous blog post, MDI filed a lawsuit in California last month against an entity which makes and sells Stoney Patch gummies, a cannabis-infused spin on Sour Patch Kids. MDI is accusing the company of trademark infringement, among other things, pointing out that a bag of Stoney Patch gummies looks remarkably similar to a bag of Sour Patch Kids.
MDI has a problem, however; it doesn’t actually know who makes the Stoney Patch candy. In its complaint, MDI refers to the maker of Stoney Patch as “an entity or individual of unknown origin or location,” promising to name the defendant when it finds out who it is.
As of last week, however, the haze surrounding the candy-maker’s identity hadn’t yet cleared. Stoney Patch’s only web presence consists of a single Instagram page, and the company’s only available contact information is a Gmail address listed on packages of Stoney Patch gummies.
In a court filing, MDI asked the California District Court Judge to force Facebook to surrender contact details associated with the Instagram account, and to require Google to turn over contact details behind the Gmail address.
MDI lawyers noted that the Gmail address seemed to have been deleted after one of its investigators sent an email to it, arousing suspicion. The motion is still pending, and both Facebook and Google have yet to comment on the matter.