Cache La Poudre Feeds defends trademark

FORT COLLINS – A tiny animal feed manufacturing business has prevailed in court against industry giant Land O’ Lakes, collecting a jury award of $15.2 million in a trademark infringement case.

Cache La Poudre Feeds in Fort Collins, which employs anywhere between four and eight workers at any given time, sued Arden Hills, Minn.-based Land O’ Lakes Inc. in 2002 for infringing upon the trademark for its Profile line of feeds.

A 10-day trial in U.S. District Court in Denver resulted in the verdict on July 10. Judge Wiley Daniel still must ratify the award amount.

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“We’re pleased,´ said Cache La Poudre Feeds’ attorney Luke Santangelo. “I think what’s really important is that Land O’ Lakes gets the message that you have to play by the rules just like everybody else.”

Cache La Poudre Feeds had sued Land O’ Lakes for $30.5 million in profits it said the company had made at the expense of CLP Feeds, which had sold feed under the Profile brand since 1991. Also representing CLP Feeds were Fort Collins attorneys Thomas French and Cheryl Anderson.

Lydia Botham, Land O’ Lakes’ director of corporate communications, said she could say little about the jury’s decision for the moment.

“Obviously, we’re disappointed with the results but all of the damage is advisory and the judge will make that final decision,” she said.

Botham said Land O’ Lakes interprets that to mean the case is still “pending litigation” and she could not comment further on the company’s defense strategy or any other issue related to the case. She said she expected Judge Daniel would make a final ruling on damages within the next 45 days.

A food industry giant, Land O’ Lakes last year reported revenues of $7.27 billion and employed about 8,500.

Went into survival mode

Cache La Poudre Feeds owner Ron Treiber said Land O’ Lakes’ actions had a definite impact on his company.

“It absolutely had an effect,” he said. “We had to reduce our staff and it hurt our sales. At times we had to go into survival mode.”

Treiber said he still doesn’t understand how Land O’ Lakes planned to prevail in court. He acknowledged that Land O’ Lakes may have simply hoped it could wear down its tiny adversary through the legal process.

“I think that happens more often than we’d like to think in our world today,” he said.

Treiber said he was glad to win a big cash settlement but said the case was much more than that. “What’s important is that justice has been served, and I think it has,” he said.

He admitted he had some doubts about prevailing in the five-year-long legal battle. “But it’s a risk you take,” he said. “I always felt very confident about our rights through the whole thing.”

Santangelo said he was proud to represent Treiber. “It was an honor to have a client like Ron Treiber, who’s a real straight shooter and forthright to a fault,” he said. “We were standing up for what’s right and he believed in it strongly enough not to back down.”

Santangelo said he disliked the “David-and-Goliath” comparisons being made about the case, but did acknowledge that it was a daunting proposition to go up against a huge company like Land O’ Lakes.

“To some extent Land O’ Lakes tried to use their muscle because not everybody would fight them, but Ron Treiber was ready to fight,” he said.

Had rights since 1991

Santangelo, whose Fort Collins-based firm specializes in trademark and intellectual property cases, said Cache La Poudre Feeds began selling its brand of Profile feeds in 1991 and had unregistered rights since that date. When the company heard Land O’ Lakes was considering using the name in 2002, Treiber filed for and received a registered trademark for the product name.

Land O’ Lakes attempted to trademark its Profile feeds under “Land O’ Lakes Profile,” but the U.S. Patent and Trademark office turned its request down in February 2004.

“The examining attorney refuses registration … because the applicant’s mark, when used on or in connection with the identified goods/services, so resembles the mark in U.S. Registration No. 2750299 (CLP Feed’s Profile registration) as to be likely to cause confusion, to cause mistake, or to deceive,” the patent examiner wrote in his decision.

Santangelo said he could not explain Land O’ Lakes’ defense strategy in light of CLP Feeds’ possession of the Profile trademark.

“They took a scorched-earth approach,” he said. “Their position was, ‘We didn’t hurt you. We sold $75 million of it but we didn’t make any profit off it.'”

Santangelo said he personally felt great about the jury’s decision.

“I feel that what we’ve done is good for society, and that makes me feel good.”