A chain of discount grocery stores is being sued by the company that makes Chips Ahoy cookies, alleging that it “blatantly” copied the packaging for its chocolate chip cookies and other snacks in order to “deceive and confuse” consumers.
The federal complaint was launched on May 27 against German grocery store Aldi by Mondelez, the company that also produces Oreos and Wheat Thins.
The company is requesting monetary penalties as well as a court order to prevent Aldi from selling the items. In the US, Aldi has more than 2,400 stores.
According to the lawsuit, the grocery store chain, which is based in Illinois, also imitated the snack company’s packaging for Ritz crackers, Nutter Butters, Belvita biscuits, and Teddy Grahams.
“Defendant is in the business of selling private label cookie and cracker snacks and has a pattern and practice of selling products in packaging that are unacceptable copies of Mondelez’s trade dress,” according to the lawsuit.
“Because of this misconduct, Mondelez has a history of enforcing its intellectual property rights against Defendant,” the filing continues. “Indeed, Mondelez has contacted Defendant on numerous occasions objecting to Defendant’s use of confusingly similar packaging and demanding that Defendant cease and desist its unlawful infringement.”
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The lawsuit shows images of Aldi’s Chocolate Chip cookies in a similar blue or red to those of Chips Ahoy cookies in blue and red packaging.
Nutter Butters in their red packaging are shown next to Aldi’s red peanut butter cream-filled cookies, while the yellow Wheat Thins box with tiny square crackers is displayed next to the yellow box of Thin Wheat crackers, which also has an image of tiny square crackers on it.
“Defendant’s actions are likely to deceive and confuse consumers and dilute the distinctive quality of Mondelez’s unique product packaging,” according to the lawsuit, “and if not stopped, threaten to irreparably harm Mondelez and its valuable brands.”
