You are probably right. By the time Topps won that lawsuit, Original Series Wackys were already on the decline. I was really referring to the fact that with the modern era Wackys, as someone else mentioned, most products seem to be fair game.
Ex-
act-ly! You are absolutely
right, sir! (as Ed McMahon would say)
In fact, I noticed long ago that, as far as both Wackys and their cookie and cracker products were concerned, Nabisco seems to gained both a sense of humor
and a funny bone after all these years - and has
still kept both of them.
The only kinda-sorta cease-and-desist orders from 2004 on that
I've heard of were in ANS1 (2004) and ANS2 (2005). In both cases, M&M/Mars complained about some of their candy products being in both of them (which, btw, didn't last very long, as not only were the Wackys that
were cease-and-desisted released
anyway years later (they were 3 Racketeers and Twits, IIRC), but a lot of those aforementioned candy products and several other candy products from the same company were - and still are - being parodied to this day (
repeatedly and
ad nauseum)).
Then there were at least two other ANS Wackys at the same time as that incident (they were Fright Castle Ghoulburgers and Slacker Jack, again, IIRC) that had to have their original artwork
slightly altered in order to appease their respective companies (and in both cases, it was only a few
minor details that most people probably wouldn't have heard of or even
noticed unless they knew about them in advance or someone mentioned them and then showed them to them). Topps, as far as I know, has had
no more trouble with cease-and-desist orders after
that (at least,
I haven't heard of any - has anyone else out there?).
