Trader Joe’s Grocery Store filed a trademark lawsuit against Trader Joe’s DEX

Lawyers representing US supermarket chain Trader Joe's have filed a complaint against Trader Joe's in California's decentralized exchange.

In an Oct. 5 filing in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, Trader Joe's sued Trader Joe's and co-founder Cheng Chih Liu over federal trademark infringement and claims. According to the suit, Trader Joe's and Liu used many of the supermarket's ideas, from “giving the red hat” to red features in the store's popularity – from the stage's creative characters to the narrative.

“The defendants committed fraud to obscure that origin story and to file an international legal action against Trader Joe's on behalf of Domer. charge.

“Trader Joe sent the defendants a cease and desist letter and a letter asking them to stop using the name ‘Trader Joe,'” the suit says. “After asking Trader Joe's to stop, the defendants continued to use the Trader Joe's name, goodwill and brand recognition – built over half a century through Trader Joe's investments – to sell their own goods and services.

The store's lawyers said Trader Joe's used “confusingly similar” names on the exchange's website, YouTube page, Reddit, GitHub, LinkedIn, Substack, CoinMarketCap, Telegram and Discord. In the content of some of these accounts, according to the lawsuit, Trader Joe's use of the proprietary form of its name — namely, “Trader Joe's” — corresponds to the supermarket chain's “proper word mark,” which is registered as a trademark.

Trademark and copyright attorney Michael Keys told Cointelegraph that “most courts use like seven or eight different factors to evaluate and determine whether there is infringement in a case. “The relatedness of the goods is one factor. […] One is the similarity of the symptoms. Here you've got Trader Joe's and Trader Joe's. Anyway, at least they sound similar.

Keyes added that he believed Trader Joe's case was stronger because the business was a well-known brand in the U.S., which could result in an injunction forcing Trader Joe's to stop using the platform name. According to the lawyer, the dilution claim in the case is something that can be taken care of because it focuses on the protection of well-known brands.

“I think both claims are very strong. I think dilution is probably stronger.” […] To dissolve, you don't have to show that the items are related. The caveat is that in order to have a dilution claim, you must show that your trademark is truly famous, meaning widely recognized by American consumers.

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Lawsuits regarding trademark infringement arise from time to time between crypto companies and companies operating in completely different sectors. In the year In 2021, major US fast food chain Jack in the Box sued crypto exchange FTX US – currently in the middle of bankruptcy proceedings – over similarities between the “Moonman” character and the company's “Jack” mascot.

Trader Joe's opened its first store in California in 1967 and has more than 500 locations in the United States. In contrast, Trader Joe's is one of the top decentralized exchanges in the crypto space, allowing liquidity providers to add liquidity to designated “value pools” to improve capital efficiency. Cointelegraph reached out to Trader Joe's for comment but did not receive a response at the time of publication.

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