Table of Contents:

· Trader Joe’s, a DEX project that has become increasingly active in the ecosystem recently, has been sued for trademark infringement by a large Web2 supermarket

· The Trader Joe’s chain was once ranked as the second largest supermarket chain in the United States

· This old supermarket is a veteran in suing for trademark infringement

DEX project Trader Joe’s has been active recently

The American supermarket chain Trader Joe’s recently filed a lawsuit against a decentralized trading platform called “Trader Joe” and its co-founder Cheng Chieh Liu, accusing them of deliberately choosing a name similar to the supermarket’s. The lawyers claim that the decentralized exchange (DEX) platform has created a story around the fictional "Trader Joe" and is closely associated with the supermarket brand.

In addition, the Trader Joe's logo also features an image of a "Trader Joe" wearing a red hat, and red is the main color of the supermarket brand. Trader Joe's domain name is "traderjoexyz.com", which was also accused in the lawsuit of being closely associated with the supermarket.

The supermarket chain asked the court to order Trader Joe to stop using variations of the supermarket name "Trader Joe's" in its business operations, and seek ownership of the relevant domain names and any other damages determined through legal proceedings.

This drama of a large Web2 supermarket chain suing a Web3 DeFi project may be related to Trader Joe's current momentum.

In August this year, Trader Joedeployed to the Ethereum mainnet. Previously, Trader Joe has launched networks such as Avalanche, Arbitrum, and BNB Chain. According to DefiLlama data, Trader Joe's total locked position on the Arbitrum chain has reached 77.36 million US dollars, and the ecological activity has been heating up recently.

On September 26, Trader Joe published a proposal in the Arbitrum community to apply for 1.83 million ARB grants from the Arbitrum DAO Treasury. Subsequently, Trader Joe reduced the amount to 1.51 million. This grant will be used to improve spot liquidity and trading efficiency. Currently, the voting approval rate for the proposal is 98.45%.

The Trader Joe's chain was once ranked as the second largest supermarket chain in the United States

Trader Joe's is an American grocery store chain headquartered in Monrovia, California. As of January 21, 2023, Trader Joe's has 560 stores in 42 states in the United States, with the number of stores being added regularly.

In May 2009, Consumer Reports ranked Trader Joe's as the second largest supermarket chain in the United States. In 2019, Trader Joe's was also ranked 14th on Glassdoor's list of the best places to work in the United States.

Image source: Blockworks

Trader Joe's prices are significantly discounted compared to similar branded products, and it requires its branded suppliers not to disclose such business relationships. In 1977, Trader Joe's began to launch international-sounding brand variants for some of its own-brand ethnic foods.

This old supermarket is a veteran in suing for trademark infringement

More than 80% of Trader Joe's products are under its own brand, including vitamins, packaged foods, pet food, toilet paper and other categories of products. At the same time, each region's own-brand products have independent registered trademarks. For example, Trader Mings is an Asian food brand, Trader Jose is a Mexican food brand, and Trader Giotto is an Italian food brand.

As an old large supermarket chain, Trader Joe's has always attached great importance to its brand rights.

In 2016, Trader Joe's claimed that Hallatt used its trademarks and trade dress, operated a website accessible from the United States, and designed his store to imitate Trader Joe's, asking the district court to permanently prohibit Hallatt from reselling goods or using Trader Joe's trademarks in Canada. But U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman dismissed the case for lack of jurisdiction.

In recent months, Trader Joe's has even sued its own union, accusing them of selling tote bags, buttons, cups and other products with Trader Joe's name and logo to the public, which may mislead customers into thinking that the company manufactures or endorses them. The lawsuit claims that Trader Joe's is not seeking to completely stop selling Trader Joe's United products, and asks the court to block union products with the company's trademarks, and also seeks unspecified monetary damages.

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