Wegmans Settles Logo Lawsuit

SN STAFF

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Wegmans Food Markets here said Friday that it has settled a lawsuit that had been filed against it by Walgreen Co. over the use of certain "W" logos on some products.

Under the terms of the settlement, Wegmans agreed to discontinue the use of the "circle W" symbol on its Wegmans brand product packaging by June 30, 2012. Wegmans did not admit liability as part of the settlement.

"The cost of making relatively minor changes to a limited number of products was much less than the cost of litigating this case to the end," said Jo Natale, Wegmans' director of media relations. "We wanted to return to a logo we had used many decades ago. There was never any intent on our part to make our products or logos resemble those of Walgreens."

As previously reported, Deerfield, Ill.-based Walgreen Co. had sued Wegmans last year alleging trademark infringement over the use of both a script-type version of the full Wegmans name and over the use of the "circle W" logo on some products.

Wegmans said it retained the right to use its full name in script-type font. At the time of lawsuit, Natale told local media that the script design "was crafted to look like the logos our company used in the 1930s and 1940s."