Cookie Cutter
Multiple employees at our office have daughters that are either in Brownies or the Girl Scouts. So, each year in our breakroom, you can find several sheets to buy cookies. I love peanut butter, but because my wife and son are allergic to peanuts, I can’t eat them at home.
However, I can buy the cookies and eat them at work. So, to support the Girl Scouts, I always buy a box of Do-si-Dos, which are the peanut butter sandwiches, and the Tagalongs, which are the peanut butter patties. Both are delicious and last about a day and a half.
I never understood the Girl Scout’s business model. They have highly desirable products, but only make them available for about two months every year. That’s why I was overjoyed when I stumbled across a package of Benton’s Peanut Butter Filled Cookies at my local Aldi. The grocery chain’s in-house brand of cookies looks and tastes almost exactly like Tagalongs.
Apparently, these aren’t the only cookies strikingly similar to another more famous version.
Benton’s Peanut Butter Creme Filled Cookies taste almost exactly like Nabisco’s Nutter Butter cookies. While Nutter Butters are shaped like a peanut with a distinct grid pattern on them, Benton’s cookies are round, like Do-si-Dos, but have the same grid. In addition, Benton’s cookies come in a red box with white script font and a cookie image on it that strongly resembles Nutter Butter packaging.
And I’m not the only one that noticed. Mondelēz International, the company that owns Nabisco and several other well-known food brands, thinks the packaging just so happens to look like their product, too.
In fact, last month, Chicago-based Mondelēz filed a lawsuit in federal court for the Northern District of Illinois against the U.S. branch of Aldi, which is located in Batavia, Illinois. The suit alleges that Aldi “blatantly copies” the distinctive packaging of its brands, which is “likely to deceive and confuse customers” into thinking they are buying a Mondelez product when they are actually purchasing a store-brand version.
The food juggernaut accuses Aldi of having a “pattern and practice of selling products in packaging that are unacceptable copies of Mondelēz’s,” which is likely to “dilute the distinctive quality of Mondelēz’s unique product packaging.”
Nutter Butters were not the only culprits. Mondelēz included side-by-side photos of their products next to Aldi-brand items in court filings. The company claims the Aldi store-brand items have different names but bear similar packaging design elements to Mondelēz products, including font, colors, image placement and product names.
In addition to Nutter Butters, Mondelēz claims Aldi copied the packaging of some of their other famous cookies, including Oreo, Chips Ahoy, Nilla Wafers, Teddy Grahams, Belvita biscuits and Tate’s Bake Shop cookies.
Crackers were also a problem. Mondelēz contends the packaging for Aldi’s Savoritz brand Golden Round crackers almost mirrors Nabisco’s Ritz crackers. They argue Aldi also copied the packaging of Wheat Thins, Premium Saltine Crackers and Triscuits.
Mondelēz’s complaint indicated it has contacted Aldi on “numerous occasions” objecting to their alleged use of “confusingly similar packaging” and demanded that it cease and desist its “unlawful infringement.” The company argues that Aldi’s actions threaten to irreparably harm Mondelēz and its brands. They are seeking monetary damages and a court order that would stop Aldi from selling products that infringe on its trademarks.
Aldi countered that the packaging for their cookies and crackers are different enough from Nabisco products that they would not confuse consumers. Mondelēz, however, purportedly said that is a crummy argument.
Reg P. Wydeven
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