Resell an existing product under another brand

[l0renz010101]

Can I buy a drink in the market, fill a bottle of mine with it, then sell the whole thing under my brand?
Can it be seen as me buying an ingredient to create a new product: same taste but different design, logo and brand?
Do I need to add something to the product? If yes, is there a proportion fixed by the law: for example 10% of the new product cannot be similar to the original product?
Thank you

 

[jharris352]

You absolutely can not use a drink and just bottle it under a different name without the manufacturer's consent. Someone like Coke would send lawyers to your house to body slam you. To make it different you have to make it distinguished from the other product. Even then if they find out that you take their product as a base they are going to try to stop you. You need counsel.

 

[Michael Wechsler]

You can buy a bottle of Coke, remove the label, fill it with your own drink and new label and sell it. If you are keeping the Coke label on it, wouldn't people think you are selling Coke?

 

[jharris352]

Prof, if you buy a bottle of coke, take the drink out, and label off, aren't you just buying a BOTTLE? LOL. This guy is talking about buying Coke or something similar, adulterating it with some ingredient, re-bottling it and selling it. I think they would have a fit!

 

[Michael Wechsler]

Yes, I think you are right. My feeling is he can do it provided the label is changed. You can probably sell "Craig's Cola Juice" provided it has Coke listed as an ingredient. I'm not sure but I'm thinking of the first sale doctrine as a defense to any infringement claim for copyright and the new label as not causing any confusion with the primary manufacturer of the largest ingredient in the product.