Food & Drink

Popsicle claims rival ‘confusing customers with tri-color logo’

The makers of two competing ice pops are going to war over whether the packaging of frozen “Bomb Pops” illegally targets consumers by ripping off the famed “Popsicle Firecracker.”

In a new suit, consumer-goods giant Unilever alleges that family-owned Wells Enterprises is trying to peddle its red-white-and-blue icy confections by tricking people into thinking they’re part of Unilever’s family of Popsicles, Creamsicles and Fudgsicles.

Unilever sells its own, rival brand of patriotic, tri-colored ice pops under the name “Firecracker,” and says it’s rung up “many millions of dollars in sales in the United States since 1989.”

In a suit made public Monday, Unilever said a newly designed Bomb Pops box “mimics and imitates” the Firecracker packaging in violation of trademark law.

The suit accuses Wells of unfair competition, deceptive trade practices and “trade dress” infringement.

It seeks unspecified damages, along with a recall of all the allegedly copycat packaging and a court order barring Wells from imitating any of the Firecracker box designs.

Rocket-shaped Bomb Pops were created in 1955 by D.S. “Doc” Abernethy and James S. Merritt, who went on to found now-defunct Merritt Foods.

Since 1991, the six-finned ice pops have been sold by Iowa-based Wells, best known for its “Blue Bunny” brand of ice cream.

According to Unilever, Wells recently began producing new boxes of Bomb Pops for sale in stores that lift “inherently distinctive” elements from its Firecracker boxes, including a red-and-blue oval that “was clearly designed to emulate plaintiff’s Popsicle logo.”

“To further promote consumer confusion, defendant has also removed its Wells’ ‘Blue Bunny’ house mark from the new packaging of its Bomb Pop products, thereby increasing the likelihood that consumers will confuse Bomb Pops products with Unilever’s products,” court papers charge.

The “blatant and outrageous copying and misappropriation” also includes an illustration of three Bomb Pops clustered together and positioned at the exact same angles as the products on the Firecracker box, the suit says.

A cease-and-desist letter sent to Wells in February alleged that “recent market research shows that more than 60 percent of respondents believed that Bomb Pops are made by the same company that makes Popsicle products.”

Wells execs didn’t return calls for comment.