How a DIY Adobe Illustrator design landed Rebel Creamery in a $23.8 million fight with Van Leeuwen

Rebel Creamery’s founders say they designed the company’s logo and ice cream pint packaging themselves in Adobe Illustrator.

But that DIY branding design landed them in a nearly $24 million legal dispute.

The Utah-based, low-carb ice cream maker, whose products are sold at Target , Kroger , and Walmart nationwide, filed for bankruptcy on Aug.

14 , days after appealing a federal judge’s order to pay rival Van Leeuwen Ice Cream millions over a trade-dress dispute.

According to a Chapter 11 filing in the U.S.

Bankruptcy Court for the District of Utah, the maker of Rebel ice cream listed $13.78 million in assets and $23.85 million in liabilities.

The bankruptcy follows a July 16 ruling over allegations Rebel deliberately copied Van Leeuwen’s design.

The dispute stems from Rebel’s packaging: solid-colored pint containers with a minimalist design and prominent black cursive lettering.

Rebel’s founders told the court they designed the company’s logo and trade dress themselves in late 2017 using Adobe Illustrator, and claim not to have retained any drafts or initial records of the design.

In a July 16 memorandum and order , U.S.

District Judge Eric Komitee found Rebel had intentionally infringed and diluted Van Leeuwen’s trade-dress, a legal term for the distinctive visual appearance of a product or its packaging.

“The evidence at that trial left no doubt that Rebel infringed and diluted Van Leeuwen’s trade dress and did so intentionally,” Komitee wrote.

Komitee issued Rebel to redesign its pints, writing the brand used “a near-identical color scheme and script on their packaging, with slight design differences to convey dietary information.” “Van Leeuwen and Rebel are distributed at the same grocery stores often on the same shelf and are frequently intermingled,” Komitee wrote.

On Aug.