A controversy in the land where intellectual property goes to die has embroiled two of America's strongest brands. Supposedly in honor of the upcoming 2008 Beijing Olympics (for which it is not a sponsor), Pepsico (NYSE:PEP) China has unveiled a new red can.Publicly, Coca-Cola, (NYSE:KO) the official sponsor of the Olympics, has ignored the imposition. However, I suspect there is some teeth-gnashing going on in the mother ship in Atlanta. MoneyMorning's Keith Fitz-Gerald makes the point that red and Coke are virtually synonymous. I further agree with his speculation that, if the new Pepsi garb is successful, the corporation will have little reason to drop it after the Olympics.
This is another example of the free-for-all currently taking place in China as non-sponsors of the Olympics try to horn in on the action.
Recently, The Scotts Miracle Grow Co. (NYSE:SMG) successfully bullied small-time fertilizer-from-worm-droppings vendor TerraCycle to change packaging design that is less similar than this example. if Coke lets this slide, who knows what we could see next? Brown FedEx (NYSE:FDX) trucks? UPS(NYSE:UPS) is also an Olympic sponsor.
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