By DEE-ANN DURBIN, Associated Press
The J.M. Smucker Co. is suing Trader Joe’s, alleging the grocery chain’s new frozen peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are too similar to Smucker’s Uncrustables in their design and packaging.
In the lawsuit, which was filed Monday in federal court in Ohio, Smucker said the round, crustless sandwiches Trader Joe’s sells have the same pie-like crimp markings on their edges that Uncrustables do. Smucker said the design violates its trademarks.
Smucker also asserted that the boxes Trader Joe’s sandwiches come in violate the Orrville, Ohio-based company’s trademarks because they are the same blue color it uses for the lettering on “Uncrustables” packages.
Trader Joe’s boxes also show a sandwich with a bite mark taken out of it, which is similar to the Uncrustables design, Smucker said.
“Smucker does not take issue with others in the marketplace selling prepackaged, frozen, thaw-and-eat crustless sandwiches. But it cannot allow others to use Smucker’s valuable intellectual property to make such sales,” the company said in its lawsuit.
A message seeking comment was left with Trader Joe’s, which is based in Monrovia, California.
Uncrustables were invented by two friends who began producing them in 1996 in Fergus Falls, Minnesota. Smucker bought their company in 1998 and secured patents for a “sealed, crustless sandwich” in 1999.
But it wasn’t easy to mass produce them. In the lawsuit, Smucker said it has spent more than $1 billion developing the Uncrustables brand over the last 20 years. Smucker spent years trying to perfect Uncrustables’ stretchy bread and developing new flavors like chocolate and hazelnut.
Smucker said Trader Joe’s sandwiches are so similar to Uncrustables that they were already confusing customers. In the lawsuit, Smucker showed a social media photo of a person claiming that Trader Joe’s is contracting with Smucker to make the sandwiches under its own private label.
This isn’t the first time Smucker has taken legal action to protect its Uncrustables brand. In 2022, it sent a cease and desist letter to a Minnesota company called Gallant Tiger, which was making upscale versions of crustless peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with crimped edges.
Smucker’s lawsuit comes a few months after a similar lawsuit filed against the Aldi by Mondelez International, which claimed that Aldi’s store-brand cookies and crackers have packaging that is too similar to Mondelez brands like Chips Ahoy, Wheat Thins and Oreos.
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