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I don't think the bottles look at all alike. Perhaps Scott's is just scared?

Reusing plastic bottles just as they are should win them complete immunity from nasty market monopolizers.

Damn: just two days ago I bought and used five 16-quart bags of Miracle-Gro Potting Mix from my local hardware store. I'd much rather have given my money to this Terracycle company. Well, lesson learned... -D

I'm really glad to see you commenting about this on AT. I received an e-mail about it several weeks back and was sickened by what Miracle Grow was doing.

Of course, it prompted me to ask my local hardware store to order some Terracycle for me.

Scott's employees and shareholders should be freakin' ashamed of their company.

Marlaina
http://www.culturalrevolutionary.com/

Ah, yes, litigation. The very thing that kills small business.

I don't see similarities, and I hope this product wipes the butts of Scotts, however, I would venture a guess that Scotts would win. Reality check: Scotts truely is Goliath. Those of us who work at a law firms (I'm not an attorney) see this all the time and much lately. Advertising and patent attorneys will look at every curve, every nuance of the new product's labels. They will look for a way to win a case against Terracycle. It really just takes a curve here, a color there, and money can make a convincing case for intent in our legal system.

Personally, I hope Terracyle survives and prospers. We need more companies like this, more young people making a difference by sticking their necks out. And what would really be very, very cool, would be people creating such a huge demand for Terracylce that the numbers could be used in their defense, better yet, if people would contribute to a fund for their legal defense. They can't possibly have the cash for legal defense that Scotts does. This could bring great interest from other organic companies who might want to assist in convincing courts that "we" really do want organic products.

Starting a new company requires investigating copyright and patent infringement so I would hope that is what Terracycle did.

Let's hope for the best. Let's make sure we understand the law, because regardless of whether we agree with it or not, it is the law and big business uses it all the time in their defense.

Best to Terracycle.

The problem is with the crazy US copyright/trademark laws. The last time I was shopping for garden products I noticed the fine print on a Scotts product that said Scotts owns the color green when used on lawn/garden products. So basically it doesn't matter if it doesn't look that similar, they're not aloud to use green.

While the lawsuit is probably ridiculous, I think maybe Terracycle should take this opportunity to redesign their packaging. It's a little ugly as it is now (I've always hated the Eras typeface). Creating a cleaner, more elegent brand would help their sales in what I imagine is their target demo: people with enough money to care about the environment. It's been successfull for a lot of other small natual/enviromental companies, for example Method (soap products).

Unfortunately it's nothing new. Scott will win if this ever goes to trial. Hopefully it won't get that far.

Trademark law punishes those who don't vigorously defend a trademark.

If Scott was to not pursue this, they could see themselves losing their trademark down the road.

Intel had to re-work their "Centrino" logo because someone else had a claim on the pinkish color they were using in the logo.

Personally I think it's all silly, as is the US Patent system...

I bypass the whole fertilizer thing by using my own worm tea from my two worm bins. Try it. You can have bins small enough for an apartment as long as it doesn't get too hot.

It's nice to see a natural garden product company, but I don't find most of these products necessary. A spray bottle full of water with a drop of dish soap, beer and compost are about all I use. About once a year I also put alfalfa and epsom salt around the roses.
This reminds me of the time that I saw my neighbor spraying down the whole courtyard of our apartment building with miracle gro, including my garden! He thought I was crazy when I ran out and asked him not to spray my space.

Any reports on how well the Terracycle fertilizer works?

It looks completely different!! And when you are done with the product you can recycle the bottle! What a$$es Scot and Miracle grow is!

as always, "90 percent of the people who do or do not use any kind of organics do so stupidly".

the actual reason for the suit.
1- it is 'parliamentary procedure'.
2. the equation is 'consciousness'.

has anyone read 'the hidden persuaders' by: vance packard?

irony.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace%2C_extend_and_extinguish

I just bought a bottle of Teracycle ferilizer and a bag of Miracle Gro potting mix to use in my garden. I bought the Teracycle because it came very highly recommended by my coworker, who used to own a landscaping company. I probably won't buy any more Miracle Gro products in the future, but since I've got both now I'm interested to see how successful each is. I'll report back on the progress of my tomatoes and eggplants if this comes up again.

As an attorney who worked for a federal judge who drew a lot of patent/trademark cases, my experience was that these fights often (and sadly) come down to which company has more money to fund the litigation. The attorneys will go to the mat on every little issue because the clients believe a lot of money is at stake and, thus, spare no expense. It can get ugly fast. Good luck to Teracycle but it may be cheaper in the long run to change the packaging! As for the superiority claims, maybe AMLitt can help us sort that out with the comparison!

one could sustain.
mimic nature, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

specialization breeds in weakness.

i bought the allpurpose plant food for my houseplants and a few potted herbs. the day after i sprayed them, the leaves had shriveled up on most of the plants. a lot of them are fine --even doing well--now, but one batch of basil never recovered, and my money tree still has weird wrinkled leaves.

this is my first year with plants, though, so maybe it's something else. however, during the couple of months of water-only maintenance, the shrivelling never happened.

Caitlin, if you read this again - why alfalfa and epsom salts around the roses? I have all three things, and a late frost this year almost did my rosebush in. It's my first, and right now it gets an occasional Miracle-Gro watering, I'll admit... last year, these very accessible and very non-organic methods seemed to help it a lot. But if epsom salts will help more, I'd love to know the whys and wherefores!

(Somebody save my Climbing Colette!)

Miranda,

Adding alfalfa pellets, etc; to the soil will assist the roses in take taking fertilizer. The epsom salt will help your rose bush because of the magnesium and sulfur it contains. Here is a link for epsom salt's benefits:

http://epsomsaltcouncil.org/garden_why_it_works.htm

Caitlyn's rosebush treatment is a good one. With a little sleuthing or hanging around a few good garden websites/blogs you will find many other natural solutions like this.

You may also enjoy a book entitled 'Roses Love Garlic', which lists many plant combinations that are beneficial to each other.

First, they don't look *that* similar. Secondly, green and yellow for plant products, is Miracle Grow really the first to use that color combo?

I read an article on this, and was stunned. The bottles really do not look alike. It made me want to never buy Miracle Gro again.

The lawsuit angers me. I just sent Scott's an email to let them know that the unopened package of Mriacle Gro I bought yesterday is going to be returned to Home Depot.

Being able to copyright/trademark green for lawn products seems a bit ridiculous, but what do I know!