An Alberta hemp seed distributor has filed two actions in BC Supreme Court against companies that, it alleges, are copying its products and selling them as their own.
Stirling, Alberta-based 299614 Alberta Ltd., doing business as Rocky Mountain Grain Products and Ancient Tribal Foods for Health, filed the civil claims January 6.
One suit is against Clearview, Ontario-based Stealth Health Foods Inc.; the second identifies Winnipeg-based Fresh Hemp Foods Ltd. as defendant.
The suits allege that in February 2001, the plaintiff coined the term “hemp hearts” to refer to shelled hemps seeds. It claims that as of that date, the plaintiff has marketed and distributed shelled hemp seeds using the term in every Canadian province, including B.C., as well as in the U.S.
The plaintiff is claiming that both Stealth Health and Fresh Hemp Foods began marketing shelled hemp seeds under the plaintiff’s mark “hemp hearts” in 2011. The plaintiff alleges that both defendants are “passing off” their products for the plaintiff’s own.
In the case of Stealth Health, the plaintiff claims that “the defendant’s marketing and labelling is confusingly similar to the plaintiff’s marketing and labelling.” It further claims that Stealth Foods has applied to the Canadian Trademarks Office to register the mark “Mum’s Original Hemp Hearts” – and that the plaintiff plans to dispute the application.
In the second suit, the plaintiff states that Fresh Hemp Foods has been its direct competitor for approximately 10 years, and that each company openly criticized the other company’s products.
However, the suit alleges, Fresh Hemp Foods took down its Internet pages criticizing the quality of the plaintiff’s “hemp hearts” in July of 2011. The court document claims that as of that month, Fresh Hemp Foods began marketing and distributing its own shelled hemp seeds under the plaintiff’s mark “hemp hearts.”
In both actions, the plaintiff is seeking an injunction preventing the defendant from marketing products using the words “hemp hearts”; damages; and an accounting of all profits and sales generated by the defendant’s use of the disputed mark.
None of these allegations have been proven in courts.
In a statement of response, Fresh Hemp Foods denied every allegation set out in the plaintiff’s claim and put the plaintiff “to the strict proof thereof.”
As of press time, Stealth Health had not filed a statement of response.
