DIY Branding, Federal Court, and a Chapter 11 Filing
Rebel Creamery, the Utah-based low-carb ice cream brand sold at Target, Kroger, and Walmart, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Aug. 14, according to a filing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Utah. The company listed $13.78 million in assets and $23.85 million in liabilities.
The filing came two days after Rebel appealed a July 16 ruling by U.S. District Judge Eric Komitee, who found that Rebel had intentionally infringed and diluted the trade dress of rival Van Leeuwen Ice Cream.
'The evidence at that trial left no doubt that Rebel infringed and diluted Van Leeuwen's trade dress and did so intentionally,' Komitee wrote in his memorandum and order.
A $36.4 Million Claim, Reduced on Appeal
Van Leeuwen originally sought $36.4 million from Rebel's profits when it sued in 2021. According to the source, Rebel appealed the ruling and reduced the final award to just under $24 million, allowing Rebel to claim one-third of sales for customers specifically seeking keto-friendly ice cream. Rebel listed the roughly $24 million claim from Van Leeuwen as 'disputed' and 'under appeal' in its bankruptcy filing.
'We are appealing the decision, and our products will continue to be widely available,' a Rebel spokesperson told Fortune.
The Packaging at the Center of It All
The dispute centers on Rebel's solid-colored pint containers featuring minimalist design and prominent black cursive lettering — an aesthetic Komitee found to be 'a near-identical color scheme and script' to Van Leeuwen's packaging, with only slight differences conveying dietary information.
Rebel's founders, Austin and Courtney Archibald, told the court they designed the company's logo and trade dress themselves in late 2017 using Adobe Illustrator and claimed not to have retained any drafts or initial records of the design. They also formally stated they were unaware of Van Leeuwen's existence at the time, only learning of the brand a year later in a meeting with grocery chain Wegmans.
Van Leeuwen's packaging, by contrast, was created by the design studio Pentagram, which kept records of every iteration — documentation that became key evidence at trial.
Van Leeuwen's founders first noticed Rebel after an employee shared a social media post of the similar pint design in late 2018 or early 2019. They were 'shocked,' telling the court 'it looked almost exactly like our packaging.'
The court cited real-world confusion: a 2024 shopper complaint described her husband returning from the grocery store with Rebel instead of Van Leeuwen. 'Your product was placed right next to Van Leeuwen and looked the same,' the customer wrote to Rebel. Grocery employees reportedly confused the two brands while stocking shelves and accidentally assigned wrong price stickers. At Walmart, Rebel pints were found in Van Leeuwen's designated shelf space.
What the Market Is Watching
The numbers come first, and here they are stark: a company with $13.78 million in assets facing $23.85 million in liabilities, with the dominant claim rooted in a court finding of intentional copying. Rebel was founded on a Kickstarter that hit its $80,000 goal in three hours — a genuine free-enterprise origin story. But free enterprise also means respecting intellectual property, the very mechanism that rewards the investment Van Leeuwen made in building a recognizable brand through a professional design firm.
Capital rewards clear rules. When those rules are ignored — whether by design or by negligence — the courts enforce them, and the balance sheet pays the price. The outcome here is a reminder that trade dress is not a bureaucratic formality; it is property, and property rights cut both ways.
