{"id":307192,"date":"2025-10-16T04:54:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T04:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/307192\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T04:54:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T04:54:11","slug":"trader-joes-accused-of-copying-smuckers-uncrustables-with-frozen-pbj","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/307192\/","title":{"rendered":"Trader Joe’s accused of copying Smucker’s Uncrustables with frozen PB&J"},"content":{"rendered":"

The J.M. Smucker Co.<\/a> is suing Trader Joe\u2019s, alleging the grocery chain\u2019s new frozen peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are too similar to Smucker\u2019s Uncrustables in their design and packaging.<\/p>\n

In the lawsuit, which was filed Monday in federal court in Ohio, Smucker said the round, crustless sandwiches Trader Joe\u2019s sells have the same pie-like crimp markings on their edges that Uncrustables do. Smucker said the design violates its trademarks.<\/p>\n

Smucker also asserted that the boxes Trader Joe\u2019s PB&J sandwiches<\/a> come in violate the Orrville, Ohio-based company\u2019s<\/a> trademarks because they are the same blue color it uses for the lettering on \u201cUncrustables\u201d packages. <\/p>\n

Trader Joe\u2019s boxes also show a sandwich with a bite mark taken out of it, which is similar to the Uncrustables design, Smucker said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSmucker does not take issue with others in the marketplace selling prepackaged, frozen, thaw-and-eat crustless sandwiches. But it cannot allow others to use Smucker\u2019s valuable intellectual property to make such sales,\u201d the company said in its lawsuit.<\/p>\n

Smucker is seeking restitution from Trader Joe\u2019s<\/a>. It also wants a judge to require Trader Joe\u2019s to deliver all products and packaging to Smucker to be destroyed.<\/p>\n

A message seeking comment was left Wednesday with Trader Joe\u2019s, which is based in Monrovia, California.<\/p>\n

Michael Kelber, chair of the intellectual property group at Neal Gerber Eisenberg, a Chicago law firm, said Smucker\u2019s registered trademarks will help bolster its argument. But Trader Joe\u2019s might argue that the crimping on its sandwiches is simply functional and not something that can be trademarked, Kelber said.<\/p>\n

Trader Joe\u2019s sandwiches also appear to be slightly more square than Uncrustables, so the company could argue that the shape isn\u2019t the same, Kelber said.<\/p>\n

Uncrustables were invented by two friends who began producing them in 1996 in Fergus Falls, Minnesota. Smucker bought their company in 1998 and secured patents for a \u201csealed, crustless sandwich\u201d in 1999.<\/p>\n

But it wasn\u2019t easy to mass produce them. In the lawsuit, Smucker said it has spent more than $1 billion developing the Uncrustables brand over the last 20 years. Smucker spent years trying to perfect Uncrustables\u2019 stretchy bread and developing new filling flavors like chocolate and hazelnut.<\/p>\n

Kelber said one of the biggest issues companies debate in cases like this one is whether the copycat product deceives consumers.<\/p>\n

Smucker claims that\u2019s already happening with Trader Joe\u2019s sandwiches. In the lawsuit, Smucker showed a social media photo of a person claiming that Trader Joe\u2019s is contracting with Smucker to make the sandwiches under its own private label.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the first time Smucker has taken legal action to protect its Uncrustables brand. In 2022, it sent a cease and desist letter to a Minnesota company called Gallant Tiger, which was making upscale versions of crustless peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with crimped edges. Smucker said Wednesday that it hasn\u2019t taken further action but continues to monitor Gallant Tiger.<\/p>\n

Smucker likely felt it had no choice but to sue this time around, Kelber said. <\/p>\n

\u201cFor the brand owner, what is the point of having this brand if I\u2019m not going to enforce it?\u201d Kelber said. \u201cIf they ignore Trader Joe\u2019s, they are feeding that, and then the next person who does it they won\u2019t have an argument.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kelber said trademark cases often wind up being settled because neither company wants to go through an expensive trial. <\/p>\n

Smucker\u2019s lawsuit comes a few months after a similar lawsuit filed against the Aldi<\/a> by Mondelez International, which claimed that Aldi\u2019s store-brand cookies and crackers have packaging that is too similar to Mondelez brands like Chips Ahoy, Wheat Thins and Oreos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The J.M. Smucker Co. is suing Trader Joe\u2019s, alleging the grocery chain\u2019s new frozen peanut butter and jelly…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":307193,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[64,1033,57,59,25618,1165,155493,3663,108425,155494,1574,1573,155492,155491,61,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-307192","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-design","10":"tag-general-news","11":"tag-inc","12":"tag-intellectual-property","13":"tag-lifestyle","14":"tag-michael-kelber","15":"tag-minnesota","16":"tag-mondelez-international","17":"tag-neal-gerber-eisenberg","18":"tag-oh-state-wire","19":"tag-ohio","20":"tag-paper-and-packaging","21":"tag-the-j-m-smucker-co","22":"tag-u-s-news","23":"tag-united-states","24":"tag-unitedstates","25":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115382064093517410","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307192\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}