Mondelēz sues Aldi supermarket for alleged packaging design imitation

Mondelēz International has sued supermarket chain Aldi for allegedly imitating its packaging design for cookie and cracker snack products. The company is seeking monetary damages and a court order preventing Aldi from selling products Mondelēz says infringe on its trademarks.

In a federal lawsuit filed in Illinois, Mondelēz alleges that Aldi “blatantly copies” the “highly distinctive” packaging of its brands to deceive customers into thinking they are buying a Mondelēz product when they are purchasing a store-brand version. 

Mondelēz names several Aldi products in its lawsuit that it alleges are look-alikes of its popular snacks, such as Oreo, Chips Ahoy, Wheat Thins, Nilla Wafers cookies, and Nabisco Premium Saltine Crackers. 

The multinational food giant says Aldi is copying its packaging “to mislead or confuse customers” into believing the supermarket chain’s products are “provided, sponsored, approved by, or affiliated with, Mondelēz.”

Design infringement?

Mondelēz claims the Aldi store-brand items have different names but bear similar packaging design elements — including font, colors, image placement, and product names — to Mondelēz products.

Mondelēz packaging on the left, Aldi packaging on the right (Image credit: Mondelēz).

One of the respective brands is Oreo. In its complaint, Mondelēz says that like the Oreo Trade Dress, the “Infringing Sandwich Cookie Packaging” features a prominent cookie consisting of a white filling sandwiched between two black biscuits marked with ridges forming a rim along the circumference, which is slightly tilted to the right, and a predominantly blue background, which Mondelēz has featured on its Oreo cookie packaging since 1952. 

The design further features a lighter blue halo around the cookie, hints of white milk splashes, thick, sansserif white font designating the product name, which Mondelēz has featured on its Oreo cookie packaging since 1972, and which is in a curved shape and all capital letters outlined in blue, that begins with the letters “OR” and partially covers the cookie where both the cookie and product name appear in a substantially similar location on the package as in the Oreo Trade Dress, claims Mondelēz.

In its complaint, Mondelez states that Aldi’s cookie packaging and the Oreo Trade Dress are “used in connection with identical goods, namely, packaged sandwich cookies.”

It continues: “[The] defendant adopted the Infringing Sandwich Cookie Packaging with knowledge of Mondelēz’s prior rights in the Oreo Trade Dress and with intent to mislead or confuse consumers into believing that Defendant’s goods are provided, sponsored, or approved by, or affiliated with, Mondelēz.”

Meanwhile, Aldi’s Peanut Butter Creme Filled Cookies come in a red box, similar to that of Mondelēz’s Nutter Butter cookies. The white script font and cookie image on the packaging also mimic the Nutter Butter packaging, the snack company claims.

Aldi also sells a product called Thin Wheat, which in addition to the nearly synonymous name to Nabisco’s Wheat Thins, has a similar design to the Mondelēz product, including a yellow background, the word “original” and crackers pictured on the bottom half of the box, the lawsuit says.

Packaging Insights has contacted Mondelēz and Aldi for comment and will continue to monitor this story as it unfolds.