Judge Tosses Trader Joe’s Trademark Complaint Against Union In Brutal Fashion

The judge wrote the grocery store company had tried to “weaponize the legal system” against its workers, and its attorneys almost deserved sanctions.

A federal judge threw out Trader Joe’s trademark infringement claim against its workers’ union on Friday, delivering the equivalent of a legal smackdown in an order dismissing the complaint.

Hernán D. Vera, a judge for the U.S. District Court of the Central District of California, wrote that the grocer tried to “weaponize the legal system” against the union, Trader Joe’s United, all in the hopes of “gain[ing] advantage in an ongoing legal labor dispute.”

Vera determined that Trader Joe’s legal effort against the union “comes dangerously close to the line of Rule 11” ― a federal rule that allows district courts to sanction attorneys for submitting filings for an “improper purpose.”

A Trader Joe’s spokesperson could not immediately be reached Saturday for comment on Vera’s order. Nor could David Eberhart, a partner at the law firm O’Melveny & Myers, who was listed as the lead attorney on the complaint against Trader Joe’s United.

Trader Joe’s filed its lawsuit against the union in July, alleging that the swag the union was selling in its online store violating the company’s trademarks. Trader Joes claimed that the sale of the items ― like a reusable shopping bag that says Trader Joe’s United and shows a raised fist clenching a box cutter ― could “dilute” its brand and cause “significant reputational harm.”