SALT LAKE CITY–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Traeger Wood Fired Grills (“Traeger Grills” or “Plaintiff”) these days introduced that it has filed proceedings towards Dansons US, LLC (“Dansons”), the maker of Louisiana and Pit Boss grills, and Joseph Traeger and Brian Traeger (together, the “Defendants”), alleging pervasive highbrow belongings theft, including copying specific design factors of Traeger grills and misusing the Traeger logo and highbrow property.
The suits allege that Dansons has been carrying out a multi-12 months marketing campaign to promote its grills as if they had been Traegers, thereby puzzling customers and damaging Traeger Grills and its employees, culminating in its current decision to use the Traeger call and likenesses unlawfully.
As specialists within the proceedings, Joe Traeger is credited with inventing the wooden pellet barbeque grill in his own family’s barn within the 1980s. In 2006, his relatives offered the business enterprise they founded to a company predecessor to Traeger Grills.
As a part of the sale, Traeger Grills paid $nine million for the unique and perpetual right to use the Traeger name, likenesses, and recognition in the wood pellet grill enterprise. Since that time, Traeger Grills has trusted that settlement, making an investment of over one hundred million bucks constructing the Traeger brand, solidifying the Company’s role as an enterprise leader, and cultivating an enthusiastic and extraordinarily loyal consumer base.
The proceedings element how Dansons has embarked on a multi-year marketing campaign to confuse clients by way of copying significant components of Traeger’s marketing approach, content material, and alternate dress, in addition to the appearance and feel of a Traeger Grill, which includes the copper painted lid, square pellet hopper, placement and appearance of the controls, the position of the grease bucket, leg and wheel design, and smokestack placement. Dansons’ efforts persevered in 2018 when it employed Joe and Brian Traeger “to elevate” its emblem and product portfolio.
Traeger Grills placed Dansons on a note of its illegal behavior in an try and solve this privately. Still, Dansons has continued to collude with Joe and Brian Traeger to misappropriate the Traeger call and imagery. Among different matters, in 2019, Joe and Brian Traeger helped Dansons introduce a “FOUNDERS SERIES” of its Louisiana Grills, which they stated became “brought to you proudly by using Joe Traeger, the founder of the unique pellet grill….” In a clear violation of Plaintiff’s settlement with Joe and Brian, Dansons has persisted in using the likenesses of Joe and Brian, and the well-known Traeger barn, improperly on a close to-every day basis to signify falsely that lower-priced Dansons grills are affiliated with, or encouraged with the aid of, Traeger Grills.
“Traeger Nation is a unique network that has been cultivated thru years of innovation and tough work,” said Jeremy Andrus, CEO of Traeger Grills. “While we welcome honest opposition, Dansons’ multi-year effort to replicate Traeger thru the unlawful use of names, likenesses, and particular layout elements is difficult to clients and unfavorable to our business enterprise. No other wood-pellet grill compares to a proper Traeger, and we’re committed to shielding the Traeger brand, our funding, and their acceptance as true with and loyalty of our community, which we have labored so toughly to earn.”
Andrus continued, “Joe and Brian Traeger are free to earn a residing by working for Dansons or every other employer so long as they abide through the terms of our settlement. However, they are presently doing exactly what they agreed not to do – and what they were paid hundreds of thousands now not to do – that is to apply their names, likeness, and reputations to confuse consumers, undermine the Traeger Grills brand, and damage our employer. We can no longer stand by while Joe and Brian Traeger violate our agreements and sell Dansons’ grills as if they had been real Traegers.”
The suit in opposition to Joseph and Brian Traeger turned into added inside the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida Tampa Division, and they fit in opposition to Dansons became brought in the United States District Court for the District of Arizona. The complaints are seeking to enjoin the Defendants from their persevering with illegal conduct and get better the resulting damages Traeger Grills has suffered and the attorney’s fees it has been forced to incur. Copies of the complaints may be determined at https://www.Traegergrills.Com/press.
About Traeger
Based in Salt Lake City, Traeger Grills has been revolutionizing BBQ grilling and outside cooking for over 30 years with one simple, all-encompassing cooking solution. Traeger pellet grills use 100% all-herbal hardwood gasoline to infuse meals with flavorful smoke, making meals flavor scrumptious and, maximum of all, memorable. As the inventor of the original and international’s top promoting timber-fired grill, Traeger uses wooden-fired convection energy to provide 6-in-1 versatility; grill, smoke, bake, roast, braise, and BBQ food to perfection whenever.
