Smucker sues Trader Joe’s, claiming its new PB&J sandwiches are too similar to Uncrustables

P.A.
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The JM Smucker Co. is suing Trader Joe’s, alleging that the grocery chain’s new frozen peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are too similar to Smucker’s Uncrustables in design and packaging.

In the lawsuit, which was filed Monday in federal court in Ohio, Smucker said the round, crustless sandwiches sold by Trader Joe’s had the same pie-shaped crimp marks on their edges as the Uncrustables. Smucker said the design violated its trademarks.

Smucker also claimed that boxes of Trader Joe’s PB&J sandwiches violate the Orrville, Ohio-based company’s trademarks because they are the same blue color it uses for the lettering on the “Uncrustables” packages.

Trader Joe’s boxes also show a sandwich with a bite mark removed, similar to the Uncrustables design, Smucker said.

“Smucker does not challenge other market participants who sell prepackaged, frozen, thawed, and eaten crustless sandwiches. But it cannot permit others to use Smucker’s valuable intellectual property to make such sales,” the company said in its lawsuit.

Smucker seeks relief from Trader Joe’s. He also wants a judge to require Trader Joe’s to deliver all products and packaging to Smucker to be destroyed.

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.

“For the brand owner, what’s the point of having this brand if I don’t want to enforce it? » said Kelber. “If they ignore Trader Joe’s, they’re feeding that, and the next person who does it won’t have an argument.”

Kelber said trademark cases often end up settling because neither company wants to go through a costly trial.

Smucker’s lawsuit comes months after a similar lawsuit filed against Aldi by Mondelez International, which claimed that Aldi-brand cookies and crackers had packaging too similar to Mondelez brands like Chips Ahoy, Wheat Thins and Oreos.