The Utah “cookie wars” rage on, via one CEO’s feedback and one other firm’s response, each on on-line platforms.
The dispute — launched in Could when Logan-based Crumbl Cookies filed separate lawsuits within the Utah U.S. District Courtroom, claiming trademark infringement in opposition to two smaller Utah-based rivals, Soiled Dough and Crave Cookies — flared up once more this week, when Crumbl co-founder and CEO Jason McGowan posted a contemporary assertion on the networking website LinkedIn.
In McGowan’s message, posted Monday, he accused Soiled Dough of stealing “commerce secrets and techniques from Crumbl’s inside database” — one thing McGowan and Crumbl realized, he stated, via an ex-employee who turned greater than 643.7 megabytes of data.
Based on McGowan, Soiled Dough had obtained 66 of Crumbl’s recipes, in addition to constructing schematics, processes, store-level statistics, a cookies calendar, coaching movies and different proprietary info belonging to Crumbl.
The knowledge, McGowan’s LinkedIn assertion continues, has been confirmed via voicemails. He accused Soiled Dough of planning “to leverage these supplies to develop their copycat idea.”
McGowan completed by saying Soiled Dough “desires the general public to consider this lawsuit is about stifling competitors” when it’s about, in response to McGowan, “conducting enterprise in an unethical method.”
In a response, posted Tuesday on Soiled Dough’s Instagram account, the corporate “categorically denies stealing any paperwork from Crumbl. Soiled Dough’s recipes, constructing schematics and processes should not related and are clearly completely different to the general public eye.”
Soiled Dough, in its submit, additionally chided Crumbl for “doing precisely what it criticized Soiled Dough of doing — utilizing social media to make clear the Utah Cookie Wars.”
In July, in a earlier submit on LinkedIn, McGowan stated “we gained’t focus on authorized issues by way of social media” — earlier than giving an in depth rationalization of its lawsuits in opposition to Soiled Dough and Crave Cookies.
It was on Instagram, and on billboards bearing the hashtag #UtahCookieWars, that Soiled Dough declared on July 14 that “we’re not backing down!” within the face of Crumbl’s lawsuit.
In Tuesday’s submit, Soiled Dough stated the lawsuit is “trending in a constructive trajectory” and they’re going to proceed “to remain constructive and lighthearted, particularly on social media.”
Within the lawsuit, Crumbl alleged that each Soiled Dough’s and Crave’s merchandise are “confusingly just like Crumbl’s established and profitable commerce costume and model identification.” The lawsuits additionally allege that the smaller firms’ packing and logos are just like Crumbl’s trademark bubble-gum pink bins and chef doodle emblem.
Crumbl launched in 2017 in Logan, and now boasts 565 places in 47 states, in response to its web site — which lists 28 places in Utah alone.
Soiled Dough was began in 2019, and opened its first retailer in Tempe, Arizona, in 2020; it now has three places in Utah County: Nice Grove, Spanish Fork and Winery. Crave Cookies started in Could 2019 with a store in Midvale; it has since added shops in Sandy, West Valley Metropolis, Draper, Riverdale and American Fork — in addition to a franchise in Odessa, Florida.