Federal Court in New York Orders Rebel Creamery to Pay Nearly $23.8 Million to Van Leeuwen in Trade Dress Infringement Case

On July 16, 2026, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York issued a ruling in which Judge Eric R. Komitee found that Rebel Creamery, a Utah‑based low‑sugar ice cream brand, had willfully infringed and diluted Van Leeuwen Ice Cream’s ice cream pint trade dress. The court ordered Rebel to cease using the confusingly similar packaging, to disgorge $23.79 million in profits derived from the infringing sales, and to redesign its pint packaging to convey a “significantly different commercial impression.”

Van Leeuwen had filed the lawsuit in 2021, alleging that Rebel copied four distinctive elements of its dairy pint packaging: a monochrome cardboard carton with a matching‑colored lid, a soft pastel color palette, oversized black handwritten‑style lettering, and a minimalist layout. The design was created for Van Leeuwen in 2016 by the renowned design firm Pentagram, which was retained to rebrand the product for national wholesale distribution. Pentagram preserved all briefs, presentations, design files, rejected concepts, and revision histories.

In its ruling, the court stated that the probability that Rebel independently arrived at all of the same design choices was “infinitesimal,” and characterized Rebel’s founder’s description of the design process as “clearly fabricated.” The judge clarified that Van Leeuwen does not own pastel colors, handwritten fonts, or minimalist style per se; rather, what is protected is the overall commercial impression created by the combination of these elements. Evidence showed that Rebel had been explicitly warned by a Wegmans buyer that its packaging resembled Van Leeuwen’s, yet it failed to make any changes—a fact that was pivotal in establishing willful infringement.

The case spanned five years and ultimately concluded with a complete victory for Van Leeuwen.