Fellow snackfood giant Mondelez International, maker of such brands as Oreo, has moved to act. In response, they filed a federal lawsuit against Aldi in Illinois. In fact, on Tuesday, the lawsuit was filed. It requests punitive damages and asks for a court injunction prohibiting Aldi from continuing to sell products that infringe Mondelez’s trademarks.
Based in Chicago, Mondelez argues that Aldi’s packaging is “likely to deceive and confuse customers.” The company claims that the similarities in packaging between Aldi’s products and its own could irreparably harm Mondelez and its brands. In doing so, this litigation underscores the widespread fears of intellectual property abuse in an otherwise cutthroat, competitive grocery industry.
As alleged in the complaint, for years Aldi has released products and designs that purposely mimic the package designs associated with trademarked Mondelez products. Mondelez argues that these types of conduct harm consumers by confusing them, while at the same time harming the goodwill of Mondelez’s legacy brands. The purpose of the lawsuit is to stop Aldi from selling these infringing products and to recover monetary damages for lost sales.
At the federal level, this is not Aldi’s first lawsuit over its alleged use of misleading packaging. Early last year, a court in Australia found in favor of Aldi. The ruling unfolded after Aldi copied a Baby Bellies snack puffs copyright. This year, a U.K. appeals court ruled in favor of Thatchers, a cider producer. They had sued Aldi because they said Aldi’s lemon cider packaging was too similar to theirs. These past precedents could shape the direction of Mondelez’s latest legal pursuit.
On Thursday, Mondelez dropped us a line hoping to get comment from Aldi about this lawsuit. At the time of publishing, Aldi has not issued a defense to the claims publicly or in response to the lawsuit against it. This case outcome has the potential to set important precedent for future trademark litigation. It will call attention to the increasing need to protect against brand dilution on the ever-competing retail front.
