By Chase Smith
Mondelez International has filed a federal lawsuit against Aldi, accusing the supermarket chain of infringing on the trade dress of several of its most popular snack brands, including Oreo, Oreo Thins, Wheat Thins, Nutter Butter, and Chips Ahoy!
The complaint, filed May 30 in the Northern District of Illinois, alleges Aldi’s private-label “Benton’s” brand uses packaging designs that closely mimic Mondelez’s products in a way that misleads consumers and violates federal trademark laws.
“Aldi, Inc.’s use of private label product packaging that blatantly copies and trades upon the valuable reputation and goodwill Mondelēz has developed in its longstanding, highly distinctive, and well-known trade dress for numerous of its cookie and cracker snack products,” the company alleges in its suit.
“Defendant’s actions are likely to deceive and confuse consumers and dilute the distinctive quality of Mondelēz’s unique product packaging, and if not stopped, threaten to irreparably harm Mondelēz and its valuable brands.”
Images included in the complaint show Aldi’s store brand Benton’s sandwich cookies, thin cookies, chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter cookies, and snack crackers placed side-by-side with their alleged Mondelez counterparts. Mondelez says Aldi mimicked everything from layout and cookie stack imagery to color choices and font styles across multiple product types.
The lawsuit further names each specific example and its original, with Benton’s Original Chocolate Sandwich Cookies alleged to copy Oreo; Benton’s Thin Original Chocolate Sandwich Cookies allegedly mimicking Oreo Thins; Benton’s Chocolate Chip Cookies resembling Chips Ahoy!; Benton’s Peanut Butter Filled Cookies compared to Nutter Butter; and Savoritz Golden Round Crackers are alleged to infringe on Ritz. Mondelez also alleges that Aldi’s snack crackers infringe on Wheat Thins.
“Defendant intended to take advantage of the reputation of Mondelēz’s Trade Dresses to assist it in selling the Infringing Products,” the suit alleges.
Aldi had not publicly responded to the complaint as of Friday. The company did not respond to a request for comment from The Epoch Times on the suit before publication.
Mondelez, based in Chicago, is seeking a court order blocking Aldi from selling the allegedly infringing products and demanding monetary damages. The company also wants Aldi to surrender any profits made from the sales and pay for corrective advertising.
The lawsuit does not claim Aldi copied the brand names. Instead, it focuses on the appearance of the packaging, which Mondelez says consumers associate with its brands because of long-term use and national advertising.
Mondelez stated in the suit that it has repeatedly asked Aldi to stop its practice. The lawsuit notes prior objections to Aldi’s versions of Oreo, Teddy Grahams, BelVita, Tate’s Bake Shop, and Triscuit products. Mondelez alleges that while Aldi made changes in some cases, it continued infringing on other items, prompting the company to file the suit.
Several companies have sued over trade dress infringement claims over the years, including other cases against Aldi in the UK and Australia.
In the United States in 2008, footwear brand K-Swiss secured a $30 million settlement from Payless ShoeSource after accusing the retailer of selling lookalike shoes that infringed on its trade dress.
The court barred Payless from selling products that closely resembled K-Swiss’s signature designs, marking one of the more prominent U.S. cases where a brand successfully challenged a store-label imitation.
The case, Mondelez Global LLC v. Aldi Inc., is docketed as 1:25-cv-05905 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. No hearings have been scheduled yet.
Related posts:
Amazon considering relocating some Seattle employees outside the city
Court Rules Against Social Media Companies in Free Speech Censorship Fight
New ‘Twitter Files’ Show Company Suppressed COVID Information From Doctors and Experts
Berkey Water Filter Maker Sues EPA Over Claims That Its Products Are ‘Pesticides’
