Owner of Tempe cookie shop defends business practices following lawsuit from Crumbl

TEMPE, AZ (3TV/CBS 5) — An all-out “cookie war” is heating up in the metro-Phoenix area. Crumbl Cookies has filed a lawsuit against Dirty Dough, a rival cookie maker with a store in Tempe and two in Utah. The lawsuit claims Dirty Dough’s cookies, decor, packaging and presentation are confusingly similar to Crumbl’s brand. It’s an allegation Dirty Dough owner Bennett Maxwell thinks is ridiculous. “Our colors are completely different,” said Bennett. “Our logos completely different, the messaging is completely different. Yes, we serve a cookie, but go find two cookies that look more different.”

Arizona’s Family looked at the two companies and noticed some similarities between Crumbl and Dirty Dough’s websites. Both have an assortment of flavors and serve the cookies in rectangular boxes. “A pizza is a pizza, so send me a picture of a thousand pizza boxes,” said Maxwell. “What about fast food? What does everybody serve fast food in? A brown paper bag. Are you going to tell me they are suing each other? Yeah, they are close, but we are in same business.”

Crumbl, which is based in Utah, has also filed a lawsuit against another small cookie company called Crave, alleging similar trademark infringement. Crumbl released this statement:

“As a franchisor of 30,000+ Crumbl Crew members, 1,000+ Franchise Partners, and hundreds of Crumbl HQ employees, we will always take seriously our role in building and protecting the company and its trademarks that we’ve all worked so hard to create together.”

Dirty Dough is planning to open 96 new franchise locations in Utah, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, and Idaho within the next two years. Maxwell said he has no plans of backing down from the lawsuit and is ready to fight in court. “The general public can see the Dirty Dough brand and the Crumbl brand, and see they are not confusingly similar,” said Maxwell. “I will never walk into a Dirty Dough and buy cookies and say, oh crap, I thought I just bought Crumbl cookies.”

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