Ritz crackers sues for trade mark infringement

Intercontinental Great Brands LLC, formerly known as Kraft foods has sued Dongguan Changshunli food Limited and Jiezhou Food limited for trade mark infringement of “Ritz” crackers.

The U.S company accused the Chinese companies of infringing upon the “Ritz” trademarks, which are registered in China, by selling Cookies under the brand name “Rize” with a very similar typeface.

Ritz argued that the name and design of the packaging was very similar to its registered trademarks and that it caused confusion to their customers.

The “rize” cookies have been on the market since 2010 however, Intercontinental Great Brands demanded that the Chinese companies stop selling the cookies and pay a compensation fee totalling approximately $775,320 (£577,799).

According to the Dongguang Daily the result of the lawsuit will be announced at a later date.

This wasn’t the first suit filed by Intercontinental Great Brands in China they also filed a lawsuit accusing another Chinese company of infringing on its Oreo brand as they used the same Chinese characters to sell rice snacks. It isn’t known whether the case has been settled or not.

By Tristan Trezise, a student at Crofton Secondary School