Beyond Meat owes $39 mln for violating 'plant-based' trademark, jury says

By Blake Brittain

Nov 25 (Reuters) - Meat-alternative food company Beyond Meat BYND.O owes rival Vegadelphia Foods $38.9 million for infringing a Vegadelphia trademark covering the phrase "Where Great Taste Is Plant-Based," a Massachusetts jury has determined.

The jury said on Monday that Beyond Meat's use of the slogans "Great Taste, Plant-Based" and "Plant-Based, Great Taste” to advertise a meatless sausage breakfast sandwich violated Vegadelphia's rights and was likely to confuse consumers.

A spokesperson for Beyond Meat said on Tuesday that the company disagrees with the verdict and will appeal.

"Beyond Meat’s flooding of the market with a virtually identical slogan, well after becoming aware of Vegadelphia’s registered trademark rights, cost its competitor Vegadelphia the perfect expansion opportunity at the height of the plant-based meat boom," Vegadelphia attorney Ben Wagner of Troutman Pepper Locke said in a statement.

Vegadelphia sells plant-based beef and chicken. The company was founded in 2004 and received a federal trademark for its slogan "Where Great Taste Is Plant-Based" in 2015.

Vegadelphia sued Beyond Meat and Dunkin' in a Florida federal court in 2022 over their use of similar slogans to advertise their Beyond Sausage sandwich. The case was later moved to Boston, and Dunkin' settled Vegadelphia's claims against it last year.

Beyond Meat denied the allegations, arguing its slogans would not cause market confusion and "fairly and accurately describe qualities of Defendants’ plant-based products."

The case is Vegadelphia Foods v. Beyond Meat Inc, U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, No. 1:23-cv-10690.

For Vegadelphia: Ben Wagner, Andrew Tseng and Gwendolyn Tawresey of Troutman Pepper Locke

For Beyond: Matthew Seror and Dana Hobart of Buchalter

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Dunkin', Beyond Meat face trademark lawsuit on slogan for plant-based sausage sandwich