Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) has filed a statement of claim in the Federal Court against the Moniz family over various trademark applications and corporate registrations containing the mark “Zellers”.

HBC accuses members of the Moniz family of trademark infringement, depreciation of goodwill and passing off, which is the deceptive marketing or misrepresentation of goods.

The Zellers department store was founded in 1931 and acquired by HBC in 1978. By the late 1990s, there were about 350 Zellers stores. However, Zellers began losing ground to competitors such as Walmart and in 2020, HBC closed down the last of Zellers stores. Despite the demise of Zellers, HBC claims that it has not abandoned the Zellers trademarks and logos and continue to have plans for the brand. For example, HBC launched a pop-up Zellers shop inside a Hudson’s Bay store in Burlington, Ontario, last summer.

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