How come the guy from David's cookies never sued? How come this is the first I've ever heard of this story?
The story has been around on FR for about six months.
The denouement, I think, is that Liederman bought out the store and put his brand on it. Both sides won, because Kerry saved himself from losing an infringement suit, while Liederman inherited the "sweetheart lease" that had been granted Kerry.
Posted on Mon, Jul. 26, 2004
Gar Joseph | This was how these cookies crumbled
By GAR JOSEPH
clout@phillynews.com
AS THE Democratic National Convention opens in Boston tonight, we ask the question, what do City Councilman Rick Mariano and presidential candidate John Kerry have in common?
The answer: Both were once in the cookie business. Both garnered bad publicity because of it.
Mariano was a partner in his ex-wife's (now defunct) Denise and Tina's cookies, in the Bellevue Hotel food court.
Careful readers may recall 1999's Cookiegate scandal in which TV reporter Larry Mendte caught Mariano's Council staff delivering cookies.
Kerry, with a partner, opened Kilvert & Forbes Ltd. cookies at Boston's Faneuil Hall in 1979.
David Liederman, founder of the David's Cookies chain, told the congressional daily The Hill earlier this year that Kerry stole the idea from him.
"It was a direct, 100 percent knockoff of David's Cookies," said Liederman, now a restaurateur and real estate developer in the New York City suburbs.
When Liederman confronted him, Kerry offered to sell him the store, Liederman said.
Kerry denies the exchange.
http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/news/local/9243873.htm
http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-news/1066522/posts
http://www.punditreview.com/kerrycookiecaper.htm