Trader Joe’s Launches Trademark Fight Amid Wider Union Battles

Trader Joe’s Co.'s recent trademark lawsuit against a union treads into the murky intersection of intellectual property and labor law, potentially testing the strength of the company’s infringement claims and the workers’ argument that the litigation amounts to retribution.

Trader Joe’s United, which formed last year and represents some of the grocery chain’s employees in three states, faces trademark claims over merchandise graphically bearing the company’s trademarks that go beyond identifying the union. The grocer’s complaint, filed in California federal court earlier this month, says the “purely commercial” sales “to the public is irreparably harming.”

The union called the ...