On the other hand, isn't Modern Family exposing themselves to legal problems with a product called "Froot Bites" featuring a bird that's such blatant rip-off of Toucan Sam? I hear stories about small mom & pop stores getting cease and desist orders when they have a logo or store name that even vaguely resembles a well know mega brand (like Starbucks, or McDonalds, etc).
I'm not a lawyer, but I'm guessing that they are not actually selling a competing product, so the cereal company isn't going to care.
But if they had a story in which almost-Toucan Sam got hooked on heroin and started sexually abusing children, I'm pretty sure the cereal company would care.
The odd thing is is that there are a lot store brand cereal rip-offs for sale, right next to the real deal in the real stores. Exact same shape, taste (more or less) and often just a slight variation of the name. And not just basics like corn flakes or raisin bran, but Fruit Rings (instead of Fruit Loops), etc.
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In most cases, these are made under licence by the major manufacturer and packaged under the store brand name; They are competing with themselves, and capture the savvy consumer who buys the cheapest equivalent item, AND the wary consumer who sticks to the trusted brand name. As far as the store is concerned, they get to promote their own brand, and to leverage a huge discount from the manufacturer for bulk wholesale buying, without pushing the price down on the brand name item, which would hurt the brand owner's sales to their smaller customers (and could lead to small convenience stores buying direct from the big retailers rather than paying a premium to the manufacturer for small volume wholesale). The global objective is to maximize long term profits for the manufacturer and large retailer, make life as hard as possible for any new entrants to the market, and to prevent the customer or small retailer from getting a decent cut of the pie - even if that means running at a reduced profit, or even a loss, in the short term.
In some cases, a single manufacturer who has plants worldwide might find themselves with a surplus in one region or another; Rather than either waste the surplus, or risk brand credibility by transporting it around the world and then selling it under their usual logo (despite a possible drop in quality due to the long time in storage and/or transit), they might sell this lower grade of their own product under a generic or store brand name.
Consumers like the appearance of choice, but manufacturers effectively eliminate it, while stiffing the small retailers, by "competing" against brands that they also own.
Almost all packaged food sold worldwide is produced by one of fewer than a dozen large multinational corporations or their subsidiaries (Nestle; Unilever; Pepsico; Coca Cola; Mondelez/Kraft; Mars; Groupe Danone; Associated British Foods; General Mills; and Kellogg). The amount of actual competition is tiny, despite the vast number of brands on display at any supermarket.
