Trader Joe’s grocery store files trademark lawsuit against Trader Joe DEX
Lawyers representing United States supermarket chain Trader Joe’s have filed a complaint in California against decentralized exchange Trader Joe.
In an Oct. 5 filing in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, Trader Joe’s sued Trader Joe and its co-founder Cheng Chieh Liu over federal trademark infringement and dilution claims. According to the lawsuit, Trader Joe and Liu used many of the supermarket’s ideas, from “donning a red cap” — red features prominently in the store’s branding — to its narrative for one of the platform’s fictionalized characters.
“Defendants committed fraud to obscure that origin story and to prevail in international legal proceedings with Trader Joe’s over the domain name, recognizing that the true story would doom their case and any plausible claim of right to use the traderjoexyz.com domain,” reads the lawsuit.
“Trader Joe’s sent Defendants cease-and-desist letters demanding that they stop using the ‘Trader Joe’ name,” says the lawsuit. “Well after Trader Joe’s demanded that they stop, Defendants continued capitalizing on Trader Joe’s name, goodwill, and brand recognition — built up through Trader Joe’s investment across more than half a century — to peddle their own goods and services.”
The store’s lawyers point to Trader Joe using “confusingly similar” names on the exchange’s website, YouTube page, Reddit, GitHub, LinkedIn, Substack, CoinMarketCap, Telegram and Discord. Within the content of some of these accounts, according to the lawsuit, Trader Joe using the possessive form of its name — i.e. “Trader Joe’s” — matched the supermarket chain’s “exact word mark” registered as a trademark.
“Most courts use like seven or eight different factors to assess and make a determination as to whether there’s infringement in a given case,” trademark and copyright lawyer Michael Keyes told Cointelegraph. “The relatedness of the goods is just one of the factors. […] One is the similarity of the marks. Here you’ve got Trader Joe’s and Trader Joe. For all intents and purposes, they’re identical, at least in terms of how they sound.”
Keyes added that he believes Trader Joe’s had a stronger case, as the business had a recognizable brand in the U.S., which could result in an injunction against Trader Joe forcing the platform to stop using its name. According to the attorney, the dilution claim in the case could also be something to watch out for, as it tends to focus on protecting famous recognizable brands.
“I think both claims are pretty strong. I think dilution is probably stronger. […] For dilution, you don’t have to show that the goods are related. The caveat being that in order to have a claim for dilution, you need to show that your trademark is truly famous, which means widespread recognition among U.S. consumers.”
Related: Trader Joe joins top 5 DEX list as Liquidity Book model thrives on Arbitrum
Lawsuits involving trademark infringement between crypto firms and companies operating in a completely different sector do arise from time to time. In 2021, major U.S. fast food chain Jack in the Box sued crypto exchange FTX US — currently in the middle of bankruptcy proceedings — over alleged similarities between its “Moon Man” character and the firm’s “Jack” mascot.
Trader Joe’s opened its first store in California in 1967 and has more than 500 locations around the United States. In contrast, Trader Joe is one of the top-ranked decentralized exchanges in the crypto space, allowing liquidity providers to add liquidity in designated “price bins” to improve capital efficiency. Cointelegraph reached out to Trader Joe for comment but did not receive a response at the time of publication.
Magazine: Get your money back: The weird world of crypto litigation
Politics
Starmer says decision to increase defence spending was ‘accelerated’ by Trump taking office
Sir Keir Starmer has admitted his decision to increase defence spending was “accelerated” by Donald Trump taking office.
The prime minister said today’s announcement was “three years in the making” after Russia invaded Ukraine – but a “very changed context” pushed him forward.
Politics Live: PM warns ‘everything has changed’ after announcing defence spending boost
In a surprise Commons statement on Tuesday morning, Sir Keir said defence spending will increase to 2.5% of GDP by 2027, funded by a cut in the foreign aid budget.
While this honours a Labour manifesto commitment, ministers have previously been tight-lipped about when the new target would be reached – with today’s decision coming ahead of a meeting between Sir Keir and Mr Trump in Washington on Thursday.
Asked by Sky News political editor Beth Rigby if Mr Trump had “bounced” him into setting out a timeline, given he has long called for European countries to boost defence spending, the prime minister said: “I think in our heart of hearts, we’ve all known that this decision has been coming for three years, since the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine.
“The last few weeks have accelerated my thinking on when we needed to make this announcement.”
Analysis: Starmer has put Britain on a war footing ahead of key Trump meeting
However, he denied Mr Trump was effectively setting UK government policy, saying the defence spending increase is “very much my decision” and he has been “arguing for some time” that Europe and the UK “needed to do more”.
He said talks of “possible peace” and what that would mean for Europe’s security – with the potential for UK peacekeeping troops to be put on the ground – “has brought our response into sharp focus”.
“I have pushed our system to move this date forward because I think it’s vital that we take the decision now, that we rise to the occasion and we show the leadership that’s needed across Europe, in response to a very changed context,” he said.
Sir Keir Starmer
The UK currently spends 2.3% of GDP on defence, with the jump to 2.5% meaning £13.4bn more will be spent annually on defence from 2027.
Sir Keir said he wants that figure to reach 3% of gross domestic product during the next parliament, but that would depend on Labour winning the next election.
Farage ‘fawning over Putin’
Asked if he is “Nigel Farage is disguise”, given the Reform UK leader has previously vowed to increase defence spending but cut the foreign aid budget, Sir Keir said: “Nigel Farage didn’t even turn up to the debate in parliament today. Nigel Farage is fawning over Putin. That’s not patriotism.
“What I’ve done is take the duty of the prime minister seriously, which is to ensure that our citizens are safe and secure.”
Nigel Farage addresses the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland Pic: Reuters
Mr Farage has previously faced criticism for saying the West provoked Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with NATO and the EU’s expansions, and for saying he admired Vladimir Putin as a statesman.
Sir Keir’s announcement comes as Europe reels from a shift in US foreign policy, with the White House making clear it is no longer prepared to bankroll the defence of other NATO members.
Last week also saw an exchange of words between Mr Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, after officials from Washington and Moscow held peace talks without anyone from Kyiv or Europe present.
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Ukraine war three years on
‘Desertion of leadership’
Sir Keir announced the government would cut back on foreign aid to fund the increase, reducing current spending from 0.5% of GDP to 0.3% – in a move that has angered some charities.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch welcomed the measure and said she had written to the prime minister over the weekend to suggest how he could redirect money from the overseas development budget.
But former Tory defence secretary Ben Wallace said an extra 0.2% was “a staggering desertion of leadership”.
“Tone deaf to dangers of the world and demands of the United States,” he wrote on X.
“Such a weak commitment to our security and nation puts us all at risk.”
The platform called the move a “huge win for DeFi” after reports have suggested the SEC may be radically changing its approach to crypto enforcement in 2025.
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