Melinda's was the name Marie Sharp sold her hot sauce under when she first started out. After it got popular here in the states, her US importer (the Figueroa brothers) cut her out by trademarking the name here in the states and started making their own sauce. She still had a contract with them as her exclusive importer to the US (who was no longer importing her products) so they settled out of court for the name in exchange for release from the contract. She then rebranded as Marie Sharps.
I tried to find the article but there was one I read that went into all the details of what happened. Essentially she was a naive non-business person and was led to believe that they were going to help her establish the trademark on her behalf once it got popular but they pulled the ol switcharoo and trademarked it for themselves. When she found out and balked, they stopped importing her sauce and went out to source peppers and shit elsewhere to make their own sauce.