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Mars Petcare Sues Simmons Pet Food

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

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
Association for Truth in Pet Food

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8 Comments

8 Comments

  1. Bobby Womble

    October 9, 2020 at 11:43 am

    It’s a joke. There is no chance of confusion.

  2. Jane Eagle

    October 9, 2020 at 12:02 pm

    Hilarious! I would think that any confusion about the label would hurt Signature: no one I know would ever buy Pedigree!

  3. Teresa

    October 9, 2020 at 1:14 pm

    Really?! They are more concerned about a label designs than ingredients they use? And it’s the consumers who are actually paying for these silly diets…Companies profit from consumer purchases. Those profits pay for legal fees. Consumers and pets suffer. sigh.

  4. Gail Kania

    October 9, 2020 at 2:40 pm

    What a waste of the court system. I don’t see where you would confuse the 2.

  5. Hannie

    October 9, 2020 at 4:32 pm

    Excuse me but GMAFB. I agree that nobody I know would buy Pedigree so why worry about your friggin colors……oh please

  6. Donna

    October 11, 2020 at 11:08 am

    I agree there are some design similarities – But not enough to confuse anyone with eyes and a brain. Sigantures label is so much courser and cheaper looking. Not a good copy at all if thats what they were going for. this is just Mars trying to put competition out of business.

  7. B dawson

    October 11, 2020 at 4:35 pm

    Apparently the crap pet feed market is so competitive that mega-corp Mars can’t stand even the slightest bit of competition.

  8. Amy

    October 13, 2020 at 10:40 am

    Or … Is it that they need some attention and are creating a news story? Maybe Mars owns Simmons? Or maybe Simmons wants Mars to buy them. Not like it matters when you are differentiating crap from crap.

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