A Massachusetts company is being sued by the ice cream chain Dairy Queen Inc. over the use of the word “Blizzard” for its bottled spring water. The company is asking for damages, and a federal judge in St. Paul is hearing the arguments this week.
The Bloomington-based company is suing W.B. Mason Co. of Brockton, Massachusetts, alleging that its bottled spring water-bearing the Blizzard name is a trademark infringement and is unfair competition, the Star Tribune reported.
The trial is being overseen by U.S. District Court Judge Susan Richard Nelson and is expected to start on Thursday, running through Nov. 8 in St. Paul.
Dairy Queen has owned a trademark for Blizzard since 1946, according to the lawsuit. The suit is asking that Blizzard spring water be removed from store shelves, as well as all marketing materials be destroyed.
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An unspecified amount of damages that include profit from the spring water sales is also included in the lawsuit.
Attorneys for W.B. Mason asked for a trial and dismissal of the lawsuit’s counts with prejudice and said in court documents that they intend to prove no likelihood of confusion exists, the Tribune reported. They also have said that Dairy Queen has not shown even one instance of actual confusion after 188 million sales of “allegedly infringing bottles of water.”
The lawyers have said that Dairy Queen was only made aware of the spring water in 2017 after W.B. Mason attempted to file trademark applications with the federal government.
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