Smucker sues Trader Joe’s over PB&J sandwiches
By DEE-ANN DURBIN, Associated Press
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 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 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.
A message seeking comment was left with Trader Joe’s, based in Monrovia, California.
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 flavors like chocolate and hazelnut.
Smucker said Trader Joe’s sandwiches are so similar to those at Uncrustables that they’re already confusing customers. 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’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.
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