Legal News

Pom vs. Welch opens in CA

By Richard Binder

Opening statements began yesterday in a trial pitting Pom Wonderful LLC against juice-making giant Welch Foods Inc. over the marketing of their pomegranate juice products.

Attorney Todd Theodora, senior attorney at Theodora Oringher Miller & Richman and representing Pom Wonderful, said that Welch has squeezed profits out of Pom's bottom line by deceiving consumers into believing that its drink contains a significant amount of pomegranate juice - when in fact, he said, Welch's White Grape Pomegranate juice contains less than 1 oz. of pomegranate juice while Pom's main product contains 100%.

Welch's lead counsel, Rick Shackelford, a shareholder in the Los Angeles office of Greenberg Traurig, countered that the purpose of the product's label is to tell consumers how the juice tastes, not the percentage of juice in each bottle. He also stressed that the two companies are not competitors.

The trial caps a year and a half of legal wrangling that began when Pom sued Welch's for false advertising under the U.S. Lanham Act, which governs federal trademark law, as well as California's unfair competition and false advertising laws.

Full story at NLJ.com.

Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on September 02, 2010 (boomark / email).