Subject: Coca-Cola Police: Confirmation of UL Date: Sat, 11 Dec 1993 00:10:20 GMT Over the

From: thf2@kimbark.uchicago.edu (Ted Frank)
Subject: Coca-Cola Police: Confirmation of UL
Date: Sat, 11 Dec 1993 00:10:20 GMT

Over the last couple of years, there have been numerous references
(many by myself) to the legend that Coca-Cola has an army of storm-
troopers zealously guarding its trademark by sending undercover
agents out to ask for Coke and sending the results back to laboratories
for analysis to see if they really were served Coke.

Well, I now have actual citations, if anyone cares.

The Wall Street Journal, which normally reserves its Fourth-Column
Story for interviews with people who can't tell when the Sixties
began, used it to explore Coke's "Trade Research Department" on
March 9, 1978.

Coca-Cola survived an antitrust attack against this policy (a rival
accused it of being overzealous to force restaurants and bars to serve 
Coca-Cola, rather than train wait-staff to correct customers) in
Coca-Cola Co. v. Overland, Inc., 692 F.2d 1250 (9th Cir. 1982).

Both of these sources were tracked down in a book on intellectual
property whose ISBN was 0-88277-887-0.