Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Jury awards Badia Spices $564K in lawsuit
Gel Spice Co. ordered to pay in trademark infringement case
Perhaps your idea of a complete seasoning is cinnamon, garlic and ginger. Most people would probably find that combination unappetizing, but hey, feel free to sprinkle it all over your oatmeal if you’d like.
What you can’t do is market that, or any other combination of spices, as “Complete Seasoning” or its Spanish language translation, “Sazon Completa.”
Doral-based Badia Spices has already laid claim to that name, and the company isn’t shy about defending it.
A federal jury in Miami this month ordered one of Badia’s rivals, New Jerseybased Gel Spice Co., to pay Badia $564,000 for trademark infringement of Badia’s brands Complete Seasoning and Sazon Completa.
The jury found the infringement to be willful and determined the trademarks are brands, not generic terms.
A statement by the company quoted company owner Joseph “Pepe” Badia as saying: “These are our signature brands that our customers know us by, so we have to protect them. I have no problem with fair competition, call it Sazon Suprema or something else, but we are the only Complete Seasoning and Sazon Completa.”
Badia’s lead attorney in the suit, Oliver Ruiz of Miami-based Malloy & Malloy PL, said: “Our client spent decades building these brands through hard work, the owner having filled bottles by hand and making deliveries himself, so it was very personal that the defendant claimed the trademarks should be canceled as generic.”
The federal court system’s online docket shows that Badia over the years has been both plaintiff and defendant in lawsuits against rival companies, including Goya Foods, Iberia Foods, and American Spice Co.
In June 2016, McCormick & Co., the nation’s largest spice maker, sued Badia Spices, claiming the packaging of Badia’s “Biscayne Bay” seafood seasoning too closely resembled that of McCormick’s Old Bay spice. McCormick voluntarily withdrew the suit later that year.
Badia Spices has been selling its Complete Seasoning since 1967, when the company was founded by Cuban exile Jose Badia in a garage in Little Havana, according to accounts in a news release about the jury award, a 2003 story in the South Florida Sun Sentinel, and a biographical timeline on Florida International University’s website.
Jose, his wife Azucena, and their son, Joseph, operated a store and distributed orders to more than 30 small stores across Miami Beach. Joseph Badia took over the store in 1971, and the company achieved its first $1 million sales year in 1974.
Arrival of more than 125,000 Cuban exiles from the Mariel boatlifts in 1980 boosted demand for the brand and landed it in Sedano’s and Varadero supermarkets. Distribution to Publix and Winn-Dixie followed in the 1980s.
Today, the company markets nearly 800 products to more than 70 nations, including adobo and garlic seasoning, olive oils, hot sauces, teas, nuts and seeds, coconut milk, and canned foods such as heart of palm and malanga. It operates out of more than 165,000 square feet of manufacturing, warehousing and distribution space in Doral. According to a profile by business research firm D&B Hoovers, the company has 102 employees and annual revenue of $55.4 million.