of JM Smucker Company is suing Trader Joe’s grocery chain because its new frozen peanut butter and jelly sandwich looks too similar in design and packaging to Smucker’s Uncrustable.
In a lawsuit filed Monday in federal court in Ohio, Smucker said the round, earless sandwiches sold by Trader Joe’s have the same pie-like crimp marks on the edges as Uncrusted Bulls. Smucker said the design infringed on his company’s trademark.
Mr. Smucker also claimed that the boxes containing Trader Joe’s sandwiches infringed on the Orrville, Ohio-based company’s trademark because they were the same blue color used in the text on its Uncrustables packaging.
Trader Joe’s boxes also feature a sandwich with bite marks, similar to the Uncrusted Bulls design, Smucker said.
“Smucker has no problem with other companies selling pre-packaged, frozen, defrosted, crustless sandwiches on the market, but we cannot allow other companies to use Smucker’s valuable intellectual property to make such sales,” the company said in its lawsuit.
A message seeking comment was left at Monrovia, Calif.-based Trader Joe’s.
Uncrustable was invented by two friends and began production in 1996 in Fergus Falls, Minnesota. Smucker bought the company in 1998 and patented the “sealed crustless sandwich” in 1999.
However, it was not easy to mass produce them. In the lawsuit, Smucker said it has spent more than $1 billion developing the Unclassified Bulls brand over the past 20 years. Smucker spent years perfecting Uncrustables’ stretchy bread and sought to develop new flavors such as chocolate and hazelnut.
Smucker said Trader Joe’s sandwiches are already confusing customers because they look so similar to Uncrustable. In the lawsuit, Smucker showed a social media photo of someone he claims has a contract with Smucker for Trader Joe’s to make sandwiches under its own private label brand.
This isn’t the first time Smucker has taken legal action to protect the Uncrustables brand. In 2022, the company sent a cease-and-desist letter to the Minnesota company Gallant Tiger. The company produced a premium version of a crustless peanut butter and jelly sandwich with crimped edges.
Mr. Smucker’s lawsuit occurred several months after an incident. A similar lawsuit was filed against Aldi. Mondelez International claimed that the packaging of Aldi’s store brand cookies and crackers closely resembles Mondelez brands such as Chips Ahoy, Wheat Thins and Oreos.
