Wegmans leaves 'circle W' to Walgreens

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Wegmans Food Markets and Walgreens have agreed to settle the lawsuit commenced by Walgreens in November 2010 in which the drug store chain claimed that certain Wegmans logos infringed Walgreens trademarks, the supermarket chain announced Friday.

According to Wegmans, the grocer agreed to discontinue the use of the “circle W” symbol on its Wegmans brand product packaging by June 30, 2012. Wegmans retained the right to freely use the name “Wegmans” in script, as well as its other marks. Wegmans did not admit liability as part of the settlement.

“The cost of making relatively minor changes to a limited number of products was much less than the cost of litigating this case to the end,” Wegmans director of media relations Jo Natale said. “We wanted to return to a logo we had used many decades ago. There was never any intent on our part to make our products or logos resemble those of Walgreens.”