Trader Joe’s files lawsuit against employee union

Trader Joe’s has filed a lawsuit against its union, Trader Joe’s United, for copyright infringement, according to local news outlet SFGATE.

The grocer argues that the branding on the union’s merchandise is too similar to the brand’s own logo. The San Francisco office of O’Melveny & Myers LLP filed the lawsuit in federal court on behalf of the California-based chain on five counts of trademark infringement and unfair competition at the state and federal levels on July 13.

In the filing, the company said that the union operates a website that sells merchandise such as tote bags and apparel while using its logo without permission, reports SFGATE. 

Trader Joe’s logo is red and features a display of food and drink above the brand name in a specific typeface. The union merchandise also features the red circular logo and similar typeface, however, inside the circle is a fist holding what appears to be a box cutter. 

Trader Joe’s said it believes the logo is “likely to cause consumer confusion” and wants the union’s profits from its merchandise to belong to Trade Joe’s as it doesn’t allow any third party to use its trademark for profit. 

The union first began selling the merchandise in order to self-fund the independent organizing effort, according to Vice.

Related:Trader Joe’s store did interfere with organizing, labor board says

“I think this is ridiculous,” Seth Goldstein, a lawyer at Julien, Mirer, Singla and Goldstein, who represents the union, told Vice. “There is no way that you can confuse Trader Joe’s United with Trader Joe’s, especially since this is a labor union context. And to deprive the employees [from being] able to use their logo and to be able to fundraise from that logo, really deprives their right to engage in collective action.”

Some of the merchandise on the website have a resemblance to the brand, and so Trade Joe’s is not seeking relief for those items. However, in the lawsuit it said that “injunctive relief is necessary to remedy the harm to Trader Joe’s and prevent further infringement of Trader Joe’s rights.”

Goldstein also told Vice that he did not yet know if the case would go to trial.