Toblerone in Past Tense

Against all odds we all are, occasionally, faced with substantiated (or unsubstantiated) claims. Some more, some less. But what are, factually, intellectual rights, for example, including the national symbolic rights, and what are the rights to actually exercise an attribution of an intellectual, or otherwise defined, intellectual ownership so to protect the claim for and against any unsolicited use?

What Toblerone Represents?

Toblerone's recent corporate message changed. Now it reads: "Toblerone is a Swiss chocolate brand produced in Bern, Switzerland, sometimes manufactured elsewhere in the past, and planned to be made in Slovakia from the end of 2023. Toblerone is known for its distinctive shape, a series of joined triangular prisms and lettering engraved in the chocolate."

The same message has been adopted in the context of it's complimentary WiKi article, starting with: "

Toblerone (/ˈtoʊbləroʊn/ TOH-blər-ohn, German: [tobləˈroːnə]) is a Swiss chocolate brand produced in Bern, Switzerland, sometimes manufactured elsewhere in the past, and planned to be made in Slovakia from the end of 2023. Toblerone is known for its distinctive shape, a series of joined triangular prisms and lettering engraved in the chocolate.

The company was independent from 1899 until 1970, then merged with Suchard, then with Jacobs as Jacobs Suchard, then acquired by Kraft Foods, then by Mondelez International in 2012."

Toblerone ows to its own history as any other corporate brand does, separately

The Tobler chocolate factory was founded in 1899 by Emil Baumann & Theodor Tobler (1876–1941) in Bern. In 1908, Emil Baumann, the cousin of Theodor Tobler, created the unique recipe consisting of milk chocolate including nougat, almonds, and honey. Theodor Tobler came up with the distinctive triangular shape and packaging. The product's name is a portmanteau combining Tobler's name with the Italian word torrone (a type of nougat).

The Matterhorn in the Alps served as inspiration for the bar shape.

The triangular shape of the Matterhorn in the Swiss Alps/Italian Alps is commonly believed to have given Theodor Tobler his inspiration for the shape of Toblerone. However, according to Theodor's sons, the triangular shape originates from a pyramid shape that dancers at the Folies Bergères created as the finale of a show that Theodor saw. Another source of inspiration could have been the similar triangular packaging of the Delta Peter brand. Nevertheless, a silhouette of the Matterhorn appears on the modern Toblerone packaging, as seen in the photo above right. An outline of a bear, the symbol of Bern, is also depicted on the mountain on the packaging.

Some early advertisements for Tobler chocolate appeared in the international languages Esperanto and Ido.

Theodor Tobler applied for a patent for the Toblerone manufacturing process in Bern in 1909. The Toblerone brand was trademarked in 1909, at the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property in Bern.

The Tobler company was independent for many years. In 1970, it merged with Suchard, the makers of Milka, to become Interfood. After the Tobler & Suchard merger it was decided to create a new and single source for marketing & exporting the various products manufactured by both companies worldwide, Multifood. Max E. Baumann, the son of Emil Baumann, was made director of this new division. Tobler & Suchard companies merged with the Jacobs coffee company in 1982 to create Jacobs Tobler & Suchard. Kraft Foods Inc acquired the majority of Jacobs Suchard, including Toblerone, in 1990; in 2012, it was spun off (alongside several other brands) to Mondelēz.

The above text is from WiKi

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Who Owns Toblerone Now?

The question of ownership is bi-lateral with a possible extension.

In 1970 Toblerone became a brand of Suchard, the makers of Milka. Today Mondelez International states (and repeats) the same story: "Toblerone is a Swiss chocolate bar made with honey and almond nougat. Created in 1908 by Theodor Tobler, Toblerone is now available around the world and is instantly recognized thanks to its unique chocolate peak shape and unmistakable packs."

In the past it was manufactured in other locations including Bedford in England, and Dundee in Scotland from the 1930s up to 1969. In the 1970s and 1980s, it was manufactured under licence in Yugoslavia by Kraš in Zagreb (now in Croatia).

Producer Mondelez planned to start additional limited production from the end of 2023 in a Slovak factory (known formerly as Figaro) in Bratislava.

Palm oil suppliers to food giant Mondelez have destroyed 70,000 hectares of rainforest including 25,000 hectares of orangutan habitat in Indonesia in just two years, new mapping analysis by Greenpeace International has revealed.

Mondelez International now states that: “We need to adjust our packaging to comply with Swissness legislation. We have removed our Swissness claim from the front of the Toblerone pack and changed our description ‘of Switzerland’ to ‘established in,’” the spokesperson said.

Switzerland’s 2017 Swissness Act states that national symbols and the Swiss cross must meet “Swissness” criteria for product use. The act requires that the creation, and 80 percent of the food ingredients, be in Switzerland except for the need for non-native natural products.

The company produces over 7 billion bars annually, with 97 percent of its products sent to 120 countries. It claims one Toblerone is sold every two seconds in airport duty-free shops alone.

Mondelez’s new packaging will include an image of a different mountain and “a distinctive new Toblerone typeface and logo” with the signature of founder Theodor Tobler. Tobler and cousin Emil Baumann created the chocolate bar in the early 1900s.

“Bern is an important part of our history and will continue to be so for the future,” the spokesperson shared.

What Do Oreo, Mondelez, and Wilmar Have to Do with Orangutans?

Did you know that Oreo cookies are linked to deforestation and impact the lives of those that call the forest home — including orangutans?

A Greenpeace International investigation discovered that much of the palm oil Mondelez uses is produced by companies that are trashing the forest and wrecking orangutan habitat, pushing these beautiful and intelligent creatures to the brink of extinction. They’re literally dying for a cookie. It’s heartbreaking.

This is why Greenpeace US activists delivered a giant Forest Destruction flavor cookie to Mondelez, the maker of Oreo, at its global HQ near Chicago, to tell them to STOP buying dirty palm oil from rainforest destroyers.

Almost 10 years ago Mondelez promised to eliminate forest destruction and human rights abuses from their supply chains by 2020. But Mondelez is still using palm oil from rainforest destroyers. Our new mapping analysis discovered that between 2015 and 2017, 22 of its palm oil suppliers cleared over 70,000 hectares of rainforest – an area bigger than the city of Chicago. Almost 25,000 hectares of that, was orangutan habitat.

Mondelez promises to offer consumers ‘snacking made right’. But there is nothing right about palm oil that’s produced by killing orangutans and fuelling climate change. Mondelez gets much of this dirty palm oil from Wilmar International – the biggest and dirtiest palm oil trader in the world.

Suc* Swiss Rules

Swiss rules introduced in 2017 mandate that indicators of Swiss provenance such as packaging stating "Swiss" and showing images typical of Switzerland may not be used, so the bars will be labelled "created in Switzerland", and the image of the Swiss Matterhorn will be replaced by a "modernised and streamlined mountain logo that aligns with the geometric and triangular aesthetic".

For example (good example currently): Toblerone plans to “introduce a modernised and streamlined mountain logo that aligns with the geometric and triangular aesthetic”, the US parent company of Toblerone, Mondelēz, shared ..

Do you 'like' Toblerone?

Do you enjoy it Intellectually or aesthetically?

Do you 'like it' nationally or internationally?

What is really good 'in' Toblerone?

Isn't the good part the Turkish honey?

Is Turkish honey branded correctly?

And who, and for what, made you 'like' Toblerone (if something like Toblerone exists)?