CHICAGO — King’s Hawaiian Holding Co., Inc. on Feb. 6 agreed to a confidential settlement with St. Cloud, Minn.-based Pan-O-Gold Baking Co. involving alleged infringement by Pan-O-Gold of King’s Hawaiian’s orange packaging.
In September, King’s Hawaiian filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. King’s Hawaiian had alleged Pan-O-Gold was selling sweet Hawaiian rolls in product packaging “deceptively similar to the King’s Hawaiian Sweet Roll packaging trade dress.”
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| John Linehan, president and chief strategy officer of King’s Hawaiian |
“We are very pleased with the settlement and the resolution of the lawsuit,” said John Linehan, president and chief strategy officer of King’s Hawaiian.
Details of the settlement were kept confidential, but King’s Hawaiian did indicate that Pan-O-Gold will be changing its packaging.
“We believe our packaging trade dress is distinctive and famous,” Mr. Linehan said. “The King’s Hawaiian packaging is a very valuable asset to King’s Hawaiian, and we have assembled an excellent legal team to protect and to enforce our intellectual property rights in the trade dress. We have invested a significant amount of time and resources, and it is our intent that this team will vigorously pursue any infringement to our trade dress any time it occurs, in any location it occurs and at any cost.”
Pan-O-Gold is the latest company to reach a settlement with King’s Hawaiian over the Torrance, Calif.-based company’s orange packaging. Earlier, King’s Hawaiian filed and settled similar lawsuits against Sprouts Farmers Market, Alpha Baking Co. and Aldi. King’s Hawaiian said several other instances have been settled without the need to file in federal court.
