Shots fired!

My wife brought home some Oreo cookies about a year ago. We didn’t know any better, so we pulled the left side open to open the package. When I moved the tray out of the way, I saw a tab on the top of the package that I could pull. I pulled the tab to the right out of curiosity and found that I could reach inside, take a cookie, and then close the top of the package without actually opening it. Food packaging that can be sealed again has been around for a while, but you usually had to pinch or zip it to do it. I’d never seen a cookie package that could be sealed again, and I couldn’t help but think it was a clever and useful idea. Mondelez owns Kraft Foods, which owns Nabisco, the company that makes Oreos. Snack ‘n Seal is a process that is used by all of Nabisco’s cookie brands, including Chips Ahoy! I never thought about Kraft Foods getting a patent on the technology, but I guess I should have.

Going back to last fall, I found that some shortbread cookies had the same opening. In this case, I saw that they were made by Keebler, but I didn’t think much more about it. Reuters says that on Wednesday, Kraft Foods sued Kellogg’s Keebler trademark for violating its patent. I went to the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division and downloaded the lawsuit when I saw that PriorSmart had written about the case in their daily litigation email. The complaint is only seven pages long, so it’s a quick but interesting read. According to the report, Mendelez, which is the parent company of Kraft Foods, met with Kellogg in August 2012 to tell them that their Keebler Sandies product was using Snack ‘n Seal technology. In the complaint, paragraphs 12 through 19 explain everything about the Sandies packaging that has to do with the Snack ‘n Seal technology.

Finally, a patent was granted for this clever way to reseal cookie packages. Two of the largest food companies in the world are now being sued for patent infringement. I looked at a package of Sandies, but it didn’t say anything about patents. This doesn’t mean that Kellogg doesn’t have its own patents for resealable cookie containers, but they aren’t shown on the packaging. I went to the grocery store because I was really curious to see if Snack n’ Seal was on any other cookie brands and if any of the Nabisco brands were marked with the patent that was mentioned in the complaint. I didn’t see any other cookie brands using the technology as I walked down the cookie aisle. I rarely saw patents on the Nabisco names until I saw a cookie called Chips Ahoy!, which seems to be newer. The US6918532 mark on Reece’s Chocolate Chip Cookies (see picture at top). The claim that Kellogg broke the patent is based on the same patent. Also, it’s important to know that Kraft Foods is buying the intellectual property rights to the Reese’s brand from Hershey.