US supermarket chain Trader Joe’s has filed a lawsuit against decentralized exchange (DEX) Trader Joe for federal trademark infringement. The supermarket claims that the DEX’s branding is intentionally designed to exploit Trader Joe’s reputation and create confusion regarding its association with the DEX’s website and services.
“causing confusion as to the source, sponsorship, affiliation, or endorsement”
The crypto project did not seek nor obtain permission from Trader Joe’s to use its name, according to the filing. Trader Joe’s has sent several cease-and-desist letters to Trader Joe DEX since September 2021, but the DEX failed to respond or comply with the requests.
In response, Trader Joe’s is seeking the shutdown of Trader Joe DEX, as well as statutory and punitive damages, costs of the suit, attorneys’ fees, and other forms of relief. Additionally, Trader Joe’s has requested a jury trial to address the infringement claims.
The lawsuit asserts that Trader Joe DEX has violated multiple intellectual property rights belonging to Trader Joe’s. The DEX operates under the domain name traderjoexyz.com and has also registered trader-joes.site and trader-joe.website. Furthermore, the imagery used by Trader Joe DEX purposely resembles Trader Joe’s business and brand.
“evoking Trader Joe’s business and brand”
Trader Joe’s notes the existence of a Trader Joe app, which allows users to engage with the DEX’s goods and services under the “Trader Joe” name. Trader Joe DEX also maintains various social media accounts, such as Twitter/X, Reddit, Github, LinkedIn, Substack, Telegram, and Discord, all operating under the same name.
The lawsuit accuses Trader Joe DEX of engaging in fraudulent activities to retain control of the platform and domain name. It references a previous attempt made by Trader Joe’s in the past year to shut down the DEX, which proved unsuccessful.
In May 2022, Trader Joe’s filed a complaint with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) against Trader Joe DEX. The latter initially claimed that the platform was named after the co-founder’s brother. However, weeks later, a cofounder operating as “cryptofish” revealed on Substack that the DEX had actually been named after the supermarket, contradicting their original statement to WIPO.
“after the supermarket,” revealing that it had misled WIPO
Trader Joe’s argues that the deliberate use of Trader Joe’s mark by the DEX demonstrates an intentional infringement that aims to create confusion and gain financial benefits.
Trader Joe DEX currently operates on Avalanche, BNB Chain, Arbitrum, and Ethereum and has a total value locked of $22.1 million, as reported by DeFiLlama. This figure represents a significant decrease from the $2.59 billion in value locked that the DEX had in December 2021.
