A Los Angeles federal court recently dismissed a lawsuit filed by Trader Joe’s over a trademark dispute with its employee union related to the use of the store’s logo on union merchandise, reports Reuters.
In a decision provided Saturday, U.S. District Judge Hernan Vera said that the union’s use of the chain’s name and logos would not confuse customers, adding that the lawsuit was “dangerously close” to being frivolous or improper.
It “strains credulity” to think it would have been filed “absent the ongoing organizing efforts that Trader Joe’s employees have mounted successfully in multiple locations across the country,” he said.
In a statement Tuesday, Trader Joe’s said the company "consistently takes legal action to protect our brand when we become aware that someone other than Trader Joe's is selling merchandise using our trademarks… [the company will] continue to take all appropriate action to protect our brand."
SFA News Daily reported on the story last July when the retailer filed a lawsuit claiming both that the union’s merchandise violates its trademark and that the iconography would confuse customers into thinking that Trader Joe’s made the products or endorses the union.
Seth Goldstein, lawyer for the union, said the lawsuit was a component of a “union-busting campaign.” Full Story
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