The cold brew clash continues.
Chobani, the parent company of La Colombe, on Monday filed a motion in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York to dismiss Danone’s suit alleging that it copied the “Bright & Yellow” trademark of Danone’s StōK Cold Brew for a competing product sold in the same market.
In Monday’s filing, Chobani calls the complaint an “opportunistic attempt to weaponize trademark law against a superior competitor” and alleges that Danone “seeks to hamstring its revival in the courtroom” rather than on the market.
The common-law unfair competition claim, filed in July by Danone U.S. and WhiteWave Services, Inc. in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, seeks a permanent injunction against Chobani’s use of the trademark, as well as monetary damages and attorneys’ fees.
The suit alleges that, following its $900 million acquisition of La Colombe, Chobani revamped the packaging of its medium roast cold brew in an attempt to undermine Danone’s market position. La Colombe’s on-package tagline was changed from “Bright & Flavorful,” in use since 2021, to “Bright & Mellow,” the same as used by StōK.
According to Chobani, its incidental use of “bright” and “mellow” is descriptive fair use under the Lanham Act. The company also rejects that these descriptors will lead to consumer confusion, as the products are “self-evidently distinct in branding, packaging and labeling.”
“The fact that Danone uses these generic terms together does not magically create a monopoly over the combination. Each one is generic – and unprotected by trademark law – on its own. Danone cannot create protection over both of them, because a composite term like ‘Bright & Mellow’ is ‘nothing more than its sum of parts,’” reads the motion to dismiss.
Sales of La Colombe cold brew products rose 186% to $61 million in the 52 weeks ended August 10, according to Circana Total U.S. MULO w/ C-store data.