Mars Petcare Sues Simmons Pet Food – Truth about Pet Food

Mars claims Simmons used the same colors on their labels as Pedigree. (No kidding.)

The Mars Petcare lawsuit claims “trade dress infringement” and “unfair competition” against Simmons Signature Pet Foods.

Quoting the lawsuit:

“Mars is a leading manufacturer of pet food in the United States. Mars sells PEDIGREE-branded canned dog food, which features a trade dress that is unique and unusual in the marketplace. Mars has invested many millions of dollars in advertising the trade dress for PEDIGREE canned dog food and has earned billions of dollars in revenues from the sale of the products featuring its well-known trade dress.”

“Defendant manufactures, distributes and sells a competing canned dog food under the name “Signature.” Rather than invest the time, money and resources to create its own distinctive trade dress, Defendant simply helped itself to Mars’s famous trade dress.”

Mars claims Simmons Signature pet food’s use of the same colors on the label (trade dress) as Pedigree “is likely to cause consumer confusion and is irreparably harming the goodwill and reputation of Mars and PEDIGREE.”

Below are the images of the two pet food labels exampled in the lawsuit:

The lawsuit goes so far as to compare the dog on each of the pet food labels…”Like Mars’s PEDIGREE Trade Dress, Defendant’s Infringing Trade Dress also features the image of a dog’s head with its mouth open and tongue sticking out adjacent to the right of the circular halo, and the image a round, yellow bowl filled with dog food on the bottom of the label positioned to the left of the dog’s head and touching the dog’s neck.”

What’s your opinion?

Would a consumer be confused by the Signature pet foods using similar colors and a dog with its tongue sticking out on their labels? Would any consumer purchase Signature thinking it was Pedigree? Does the Signature label harm the goodwill and reputation of Mars Petcare?

Or, do you think this is a frivolous lawsuit?

You can read the full lawsuit Here.

Wishing you and your pet(s) the best,

Susan Thixton
Pet Food Safety Advocate
TruthaboutPetFood.com
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