Trader Joe's Keeps Up Trademark Fight Against Union After Lawsuit Is Tossed

Trader Joe’s isn’t backing down in a trademark battle with its workers’ union.

Last month a federal judge threw out all of the company’s claims that the union, Trader Joe’s United, had violated its trademarks with the union’s name and logo. The judge went so far as to say that the company’s attorneys nearly deserved sanctions for even filing the lawsuit.

But the scathing order didn’t stop Trader Joe’s from filing an appeal in federal court Thursday in hopes of keeping the lawsuit alive. The company is trying to force the union to stop selling merchandise like tote bags, T-shirts and mugs that have the name Trader Joe’s United on them.

Trader Joe’s argues that the items could be creating “confusion” among its consumers and “diluting” the grocer’s brand — claims that the judge overseeing the case, Hernán Vera, didn’t buy in the slightest. Vera wrote that Trader Joe’s was trying to “weaponize” the legal system against its own workers to “gain advantage” in an ongoing labor dispute.

The trademark lawsuit is one of a handful that big-name companies have filed recently against new unions while claiming intellectual property violations. Medieval Times and Starbucks made similar claims against Medieval Times Performers United and Starbucks Workers United, respectively.

The companies’ legal efforts are not going well so far.

Like Trader Joe’s, Medieval Times saw a federal judge throw out all of its claims. The judge in its case wrote that there was “no plausible likelihood” of people conflating the dinner theater chain with the union that represents workers at two of its nine U.S. castles. Medieval Times has appealed the judge’s order dismissing its case.

Seth Goldstein, an attorney for Trader Joe’s United, called the