Utah Cookie Wars Highlight A Need To Protect Trade Secrets

There is a war happening in Utah, but rather than bullets, the combatants are using lawyers and freshly-baked cookies. The first shots were fired at the beginning of summer 2022 by Utah's staple gourmet cookie shop Crumbl Cookies. In May, Crumbl sued two of its competitors in the cookie industry Dirty Dough Cookies and Crave Cookies, principally alleging that Dirty Dough and Crave are infringing on Crumbl's trade dress and trademarks. These lawsuits gained substantial attention in local news outlets, including The Deseret News and The Salt Lake Tribune as well as on several social media sites who assigned the disputes the hashtag "#UtahCookieWars."

Crumbl pursued the fight throughout the blistering Utah summer, and though the lawsuits began as ordinary trademark actions, the Dirty Dough suit recently became more complex. Near the beginning of August, Crumbl asserted new claims against Dirty Dough for trade secret misappropriation. In support of its trade secret