Here’s the gist of today’s post: The makers of Miracle-Gro are suing the pants off of one of their smallest competitors, Terracycle.
But before I get into that, let me tell you why you should care about Terracycle at all. First of all, they make a fertilizer product made entirely from worm poo, made by feeding organic waste to their worms. They make a nitrogen-rich liquid from this worm poo, and they package their product in recycled soda bottles. They get the bottles for free, from places like elementary schools and yoga studios, and for each bottle the company donates five cents to the charity of choice of the place they collected it from. Terracycle’s web site says they’ve collected over 1.5 million soda bottles; that’s a lot of plastic.
So, basically, Terracycle kicks ass. Unfortunately, they’re getting sued by Scotts, the company that makes Miracle-Gro. We’re all familiar with Miracle-Gro, but did you know that “ScottsMiracle-Gro products are No. 1 in every major category and in virtually every major market in which they compete”, according to Scotts’ investor information? Scott’s owns a huge share of the market, and they’re certainly not hurting for profits, either.
So, why are they suing Terracycle, a company that’s been in existence for about four years, and isn’t even profitable yet? Scotts says that Terracycle’s packaging is infringing on the look and feel of Miracle-Gro’s packaging. But check out this photo, and see if you think the packaging of the two products is at all similar. And if you think, yeah, maybe Scotts has a point, then you should look at the list Terracycle has compiled of over a hundred other fertilizer and gardening products that use similar colors and images to the ones on Miracle-Gro’s packaging. With so many products that look similar to Miracle-Gro, why are they just suing Terracycle?
In my opinion, the idea that Terracycle poses a unique threat to the branding of Miracle-Gro is laughable, to say the least. Could the real reason behind the lawsuit be Terracycle’s growing presence on shelves at stores like Wal-Mart and Target? Or could it be that Scotts is perceiving Terracycle to be a threat to their line of natural gardening products, Earth-Gro? Whatever the reason is, I think it’s just so dirty when a huge company uses a lawsuit as a business tactic to take out the little guys before they can pose a threat. After all, even if Scotts doesn’t win, the legal fees could easily wipe Terracycle out.
Terracycle has started a blog, Sued by Scotts, to help them in their fight. They’re trying to use the internet to help sway public opinion, and I’m all for it. I just hope that the company can pull through this legal battle, which is bound to be long and expensive. I just can’t believe what a complete waste of time (not to mention our tax dollars) this lawsuit is going to be.
You can read the original article at the Wall Street Journal.
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