Stop & Shop has filed a lawsuit against Whole Foods Markets, claiming that the natural and organic retailer violated its trademark of its “Real Deal” marketing campaign.
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The Massachusetts-based supermarket filed the suit in a Boston district court last week.
Stop & Shop alleges that a matter of weeks after it commenced its “Real Deal” advertising campaign highlighting price cuts, Whole Foods began using the phrase “The Real Deal” to highlight cost-savings in its own promotional activity.
Stop & Shop also claims that the Whole Foods “The Real Deal” logo is essentially identical to its own trademarked logo and that Whole Foods’ “Real Steal” signage is “substantially similar”.
The use of the signs “is likely to cause confusion, to cause mistake and to deceive customers”, the retailer stated.
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By GlobalDataStop & Shop said that it wanted Whole Foods to stop using its “The Real Deal” promotion.
In the filing, Stop & Shop suggested that Whole Foods was looking to gain from its reputation as a value retailer.
The use of the logos allows Whole Foods to “trade on [Stop & Shop’s] reputation for value pricing, as Whole Foods tries to shed its longstanding reputation for high prices that has, among other things, earned it the nickname ‘Whole Paycheque.’ “
