PHILADELPHIA -- A U.S. District Court judge today ruled in favor of Flaster/Greenberg client Heartland Sweeteners, LLC after denying the request of McNeil Nutritionals LLC, the consumer products subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson that markets and distributes Splenda, to block the packaging used by Heartland Sweeteners for its own sucralose product. McNeil had sought an injunction, requesting that the Court immediately order Heartland to stop using its packaging. McNeil had alleged that the yellow packaging used by Heartland was a trade dress infringement of McNeil's own Splenda packaging and was designed to confuse consumers. Judge John R. Padova, of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, disagreed and found that McNeil had failed to demonstrate that the Heartland packaging was likely to cause consumer confusion and allowed Heartland to continue using its packaging and distributing its products.

The trial team for Heartland included Abbe F. Fletman and Lizannne Hackett at Flaster/Greenberg P.C. in Philadelphia and Heartland attorney Bill O'Connor, of Dann Pecar Newman & Kleiman, P.C. in Indianapolis. Fletman, lead trial counsel, argued for Heartland that McNeil had not shown that Heartland’s packaging would confuse consumers. "To the contrary," said Fletman, "Heartland's packaging is significantly different from McNeil's, uses generic product names, such as 'Sucralose', and is marketed as the private-label brand of supermarkets whose own brands are well known to consumers."

The news follows closely the settlement by McNeil of the false advertising claim involving Splenda brought against it by Merisant Industries - the sellers of Equal and NutraSweet, which was also pending in federal court in Philadelphia. That settlement occurred on the same day that a commercial court in France ruled that the advertising statements for Splenda were banned by French consumer protection laws.

"We are thrilled with the judge's decision," said Ted Gelov, Heartland's CEO. "This is not only a win for Heartland, but for national grocery retailers that distribute our product, as well as for the American consumer. We will vigorously defend against any attempts to prevent Heartland from offering consumers choices in making purchases."

Heartland Sweeteners LLC is an Indiana-based manufacturer of private-label artificial tabletop sweetener products.

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