P&G suing private labelers

Procter & Gamble is getting aggressive in suing private label manufacturers for making their packages look too much like those of P&G's branded products.

Last week they settled with McLane, a big distributor, who agreed to change the packaging of four of its products:

As part of the deal, McLane agreed to immediately redesign the packaging of four of its products, which P&G said looked remarkably similar to some of its leading brands.

In a lawsuit filed in December, P&G said that toilet paper called Soft N Plush copied Charmin, paper towels called "Towels" copied its Bounty packaging and over-the-counter cold medicines called DayTime and NightTime Liquid Caps imitated Vicks' NyQuil and DayQuil LiquiCaps brands. The products usually were lower-priced than P&G's.

Simultaneously, they filed suit against Vi-Jon for copycatting P&G's mouthwash, Crest Pro-Health:

The lawsuit specifically alleges that Vi-Jon's packaging of its mouthwash product mimics many aspects of P&G's packaging, including P&G's distinctive "faceted diamond" bottle shape, the precise shade of blue mouthwash rinse, and the shape, metallic finish and general color scheme of the label.

If P&G continues to be successful, watch for other manufacturers to follow suit -- private label market share is getting big enough to really hurt.