California-based King's Hawaiian has announced settlement of second lawsuit against Aldi over its orange packaging trade dress.
Image: King's Hawaiian has settled lawsuit against Aldi over orange packaging. Photo: courtesy of sscreations / FreeDigitalPhotos.net.
For the second time in three years, the lawsuit has been settled by King’s Hawaiian against Aldi over packaging sold at the discount grocery chain, alleging that infringed its intellectual property rights in its orange packaging.
The settlement facilitated speedy swift conclusion to the latest lawsuit filed by King’s Hawaiian to protect its orange packaging trade dress.
In November 2018, King’s Hawaiian lodged a complaint against Aldi in a federal court in Los Angeles alleging infringement of its intellectual property rights in the distinctive packaging trade dress that the company uses for its Hawaiian sweet dinner rolls.
The suit also alleged breach of the parties’ earlier settlement agreement, which had resolved a similar lawsuit King’s Hawaiian filed against Aldi in Georgia in October 2015.
In the latest lawsuit, King’s Hawaiian alleged Aldi has been selling sweet Hawaiian bread stuffing mix in packaging similar to its Hawaiian packaging trade dress.
King’s Hawaiian also said that it has now settled this latest lawsuit against Aldi on confidential terms. Aldi has also agreed to change the packaging of its Hawaiian bread stuffing.
King’s Hawaiian president and chief strategy officer John Linehan said: “The King’s Hawaiian packaging trade dress is one of our most valuable assets and King’s Hawaiian has assembled a top-notch, two-firm legal team to protect and to enforce our intellectual property rights in the trade dress.
“We have invested significant time and resources and it is our intent that this legal team will vigorously pursue any infringement of our trade dress any time, in any place, and at any cost.”
King’s Hawaiian has filed and resolved similar lawsuits over its distinctive packaging trade dress in recent years in US federal district courts such as California, Georgia, and Illinois.
The company also resolved lawsuits against Sprouts Farmer’s Market, Alpha Baking Company, Pan-O-Gold Baking Company.
King’s Hawaiian, which is the long-time manufacturer of Hawaiian sweet bread products, is a family-owned business that operates 400,000 ft² baking facilities in Torrance of California and Oakwood of Georgia.