Sheboygan creamery embroiled in butter battle

SHEBOYGAN - Irish butter from Old World Creamery in Sheboygan returned to shelves Friday following a trademark dispute that saw the product yanked from stores.

Old World Creamery began selling pure Irish butter branded "Irishgold" at Woodman's Markets in Wisconsin on April 11, but an Eastern District of Wisconsin judge halted the sale of the product later the same week due to a trademark dispute by the Dublin-based Ornua, owner of the Kerrygold brand of Irish butter.

The company sued Old World Creamery April 10 alleging that Irishgold’s similar name and packaging are an attempt to profit from Kerrygold’s brand reputation. Ornua sought an injunction baring Old World Creamery from marketing and selling butter products similar to the Kerrygold trademark.

"(Old World Creamery's) choice of the Irishgold mark and packaging substantially similar to the packaging for Kerrygold Irish butter shows a deliberate effort to trade off the enormous goodwill and strong reputation that Ornua has built up in the Kerrygold brand for many years," Ornua said in the lawsuit.

Old World Creamery disagrees their product infringes on the Kerrygold trademark and said they were disappointed by the judge's decision to bar the sale of the product while the lawsuit moves forward.

“As I have said many times, ‘When times get tough, it’s important to raise your head higher and keep moving forward.’ We will move forward at this point and look at all options available,” Steve Knaus, managing partner of Old World Creamery of Sheboygan, said following the ruling.

The company's product returned to store shelves Friday, April 21, with a new name: “Old World Creamery” Pure Irish Butter.

“We’re excited to once again be able to get our product on the shelves in the Badger State,” Knaus said in a news release. “Irish butter has a higher butterfat content than the average American butter, which translates into a richer, creamier texture for the butter.”

The case stems from a decades-old state law that requires butter sold in the state to be graded to Wisconsin butter standards, essentially banning butters produced from outside the United States from being sold in Wisconsin. Kerrygold, graded in the brand's country of Ireland, is sold in other states — and Wisconsinites sued the state last month over the law — but, as of yet, it is not available in Wisconsin.

Old World Creamery works within the law by importing butter from Ireland, processing and packaging it before having the company's state-licensed butter graders rate it.

“Old World Creamery has five Wisconsin state-licensed butter graders on staff to make sure the butter meets Wisconsin’s butter standards,” Knaus said.

The butter is not yet available in Sheboygan, but Knaus said the company is in talks with Festival Foods, Piggly Wiggly, and Pick N Save to carry the product.

Old World Creamery operates out of the former Dean's Foods plant in Sheboygan, which was purchased by the family-owned, Sun Prairie-based Weyauwega Cheese in 2016 and operated by the company’s Old World Creamery affiliate.

The company began packaging butter in 2016. The newly opened business plans to begin manufacturing its own butter, cream cheese and ice cream in the future. They also plan open a retail shop. For more information, visit www.owcreamery.com.

Reach reporter Phillip Bock at 920-453-5121, pbock@sheboyganpress.com, @bockling on Twitter