Let’s Get This “Local” Bread!

Bimbo Bakeries and U.S. Bakery recently found out that consumer confusion, like politics, is local, and that “local” means what the local consumer says it means. Let’s unbraid this loaf. In Bimbo Bakeries USA, Inc. v. Sycamore, No. 2:13-CV-00749, 2019 WL 1058234 (D. Utah Mar. 5, 2019), the jury originally awarded Bimbo $8,027,720 in damages on its false advertising claim against U.S. Bakery, who tried multiple times to convince the court that what makes bread “local” is really a matter of the seller’s opinion, or at least that claiming bread is “local” is mere puffery. According to U.S. Bakery, “local” was a geographical term, but not a geographically descriptive term entitled to Lanham Act protection, because “local” was not a specified location. “Local,” as the Bimbo court noted, is a location, albeit one without a set definition. No matter, according to the court, because the question is not…

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