(NewsNation) — The JM Smucker Company is suing Trader Joe’s, accusing the grocery chain of infringing trademarks related to its Uncrustables product.
The suit was filed Monday in Ohio.
The lawsuit refers to Trader Joe’s “back to school” product as “an obvious attempt to compromise on the fame and recognition” of the Uncrustables design.
The lawsuit also claimed that Trader Joe’s infringed on the Uncrustables trademark by using blue packaging similar to the Smucker Co. trademark.
“Smucker does not challenge other sellers of prepackaged, frozen, thawed and consumed crustless sandwiches in the marketplace,” the company said in its lawsuit. “But it cannot allow others to use Smucker’s valuable intellectual property to make such sales.”
Smucker seeks relief from Trader Joe’s.
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A message seeking comment was left Wednesday with Trader Joe’s, based in Monrovia, California.
Michael Kelber, chairman of the intellectual property group at Neal Gerber Eisenberg, a Chicago law firm, said Smucker’s trademarks would help strengthen his argument. But Trader Joe’s could argue that the crimping of its sandwiches is merely functional and cannot be trademarked, Kelber said.
Trader Joe’s sandwiches also appear to be slightly squarer than Uncrustables’, so the company could argue that the shape is not the same, Kelber said.
Uncrustables were invented by two friends who began producing them in 1996 in Fergus Falls, Minnesota. Smucker purchased their company in 1998 and obtained patents for a “sealed, crustless sandwich” in 1999.
But it was not easy to mass produce them. In the lawsuit, Smucker said it spent more than $1 billion growing the Uncrustables brand over the past 20 years. Smucker spent years trying to perfect Uncrustables’ stretchy bread and developing new topping flavors like chocolate and hazelnut.
Kelber said one of the biggest questions companies debate in cases like this is whether the copied product misleads consumers.
Smucker says this is already happening with Trader Joe’s sandwiches. In the lawsuit, Smucker showed a photo on social media of a person claiming that Trader Joe’s contracted with Smucker to make the sandwiches under its own private label.
This isn’t the first time Smucker has filed a lawsuit to protect its Uncrustables brand. In 2022, she sent a cease-and-desist letter to a Minnesota company called Gallant Tiger, which made upscale versions of crustless peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with crimped edges. Smucker said Wednesday that he has not taken further action, but continues to monitor Gallant Tiger.
Smucker probably felt he had no choice but to sue this time, Kelber said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
