There’s fire in this jelly belly: Jellybean ‘founder’ sues company in federal court

Davide Klein -- the unique founding father of Jelly Stomach jellybeans -- claimed the corporate is ruining his popularity in a federal court docket lawsuit.
AP Photograph/Jae C. Hong

An aggrieved sweet man claims the Jelly Stomach Firm has been souring his popularity because the creator of the candy deal with.

David Klein says he’s the “authentic founder” of the Fairfield, Ca.-based enterprise, and the “authentic inventor” of the corporate, whose jelly beans are available in 50 flavors, starting from cotton sweet to buttered popcorn.

Jelly Stomach Firm has been “in an effort to rewrite the historical past and origin of the Jelly Stomach jelly bean” by portraying Klein as a “pretend,” he claims in a Manhattan lawsuit.

Klein says the corporate broken his popularity and that he’s misplaced enterprise alternatives within the nation’s greater than $200 million jelly bean market.

Klein’s authorized declare, first filed in state court docket and just lately moved to Manhattan Federal court docket, isn’t value a hill of beans, stated Jelly Stomach attorneys who need the case tossed.

The litigation is “the newest in an extended sequence of public relations stunts” from Klein, who “continues to complain that he has not acquired the popularity he believes he's owed associated to Jelly Stomach’s Jelly Stomach® model of jelly beans,” based on court docket papers.

Klein stated the Jelly Stomach Firm is trying to ewrite the historical past and origin of the Jelly Stomach jelly bean” and painting him as a “pretend.”

AP Photograph/Jae C. Hong

The enterprise now often called Jelly Stomach started because the Herman Goelitz Sweet Firm, a greater than century previous household affair based by Gustav Goelitz, the corporate stated.

Klein formulated the thought for a brand new fangled jelly bean within the Nineteen Seventies, and reportedly requested the Goelitz Sweet Firm to supply them, according to a 2011 characteristic within the Los Angeles Occasions. He then bought them out of a nook of Fosselman’s Ice Cream in Alhambra, California.

The primary flavors had been Very Cherry, Tangerine, Lemon, Inexperienced Apple, Grape Jelly, Licorice, Root Beer, and Cream Soda.

Jelly Stomach Firm attorneys known as Klein’s lawsuit the “newest in an extended sequence of public relations stunts.”

Photograph by David Paul Morris/Getty Pictures

In 1980, Klein and his companion bought their curiosity within the Jelly Stomach to Goelitz for $5 million.

Klein couldn't instantly be reached for remark. Attorneys for the Jelly Bean Sweet Firm didn't return messages.