Mondelēz International has sued Joyride, the Texas-based candy brand behind Sour Smacks, accusing it of ripping off the kid-shaped gummies and yellow-and-green packaging that have made Sour Patch Kids a grocery-aisle staple for decades. The federal lawsuit, filed Monday in the Northern District of Illinois, seeks to stop sales of Sour Smacks and recover monetary damages for what Mondelēz calls deliberate copying.
Mondelēz, the West Loop-based snack conglomerate that also owns Oreo and Ritz, says in its complaint that Joyride copied Sour Patch Kids' kid-shaped gummy candy and signature packaging, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. Joyride released Sour Smacks in April 2025 — brightly colored chewy candies shaped like grinning people, packaged in yellow and green — and Mondelēz alleges in its complaint that the design and packaging copy Sour Patch Kids' iconic look. A legal-industry analysis from Gerben IP adds that Mondelēz alleges Joyride deliberately adopted packaging and candy designs closely resembling its own.
From Project 7 to a Direct Rival
Joyride wasn't always positioned as a Sour Patch Kids competitor. The company was founded as Project 7 in 2008 and rebranded as Joyride in 2022, the same year it hired YouTube personality Ryan Trahan, who now serves as its chief creative officer and co-owner. Its sour candy's name, shape and packaging looked different as recently as 2020 and 2022, before changes tied to the 2022 rebrand and a further redesign in 2025, per the complaint's account as detailed by Gerben IP.
Those changes, Mondelēz contends, weren't incidental. The complaint alleges that in January 2025, Joyride announced a social media campaign aimed at surpassing Sour Patch Kids' popularity by chasing more online followers — at a time when Sour Patch Kids held the title of most-followed candy brand on Instagram, per the lawsuit. Trahan, who has more than 24 million YouTube subscribers, posted that he planned to make Joyride the most-followed candy brand on the platform, the lawsuit states. Joyride has said its posts went viral and that it gained more than 300,000 followers as a result, according to the complaint.
Money, Shelf Space and a Slight Edge
The financial stakes sharpen the dispute. Joyride disclosed in May 2025 that it had raised $30 million in private equity funding at a valuation of about $100 million, and Mondelēz's complaint claims that funding came as the brand increasingly associated itself with Sour Patch Kids. The two products are often sold at the same retailers and on the same shelf, the lawsuit notes — Joyride's candies are sold at Target, Walmart and online.
Mondelēz holds federal trademark registrations covering Sour Patch Kids' candy trade dress and candy shape, numbered 2812019 and 5514097, according to Gerben IP's review of the filing. The same account notes Mondelēz only filed additional trademark applications to protect its packaging in March, months before bringing suit. Trademark attorney Josh Gerben, writing on his firm's blog, called the case a close one: neither side has a slam-dunk case, he said, and a judge or jury could rule for either party, though Mondelēz would seem to have a slight edge because of Joyride's own public statements about chasing Sour Patch Kids' popularity. Gerben also cautioned that absent a settlement, it could easily take two years or more before the case reaches trial. Neither Mondelēz nor Joyride responded to a request for comment, per the Sun-Times.
Not Mondelēz's First Fight Over Sour Patch Kids' Look
This isn't the first time Mondelēz has gone to court to defend the Sour Patch Kids brand, though earlier disputes involved different products and different outcomes. In 2020, two California vape shops agreed to stop displaying cannabis baggies resembling Sour Patch Kids as part of a settlement with Mondelēz Canada, according to Law360. Mondelēz later dropped its broader effort to track down the makers of those knockoff cannabis gummy bags after settling with three retailers who agreed to stop selling them, Law360 reported separately.
Mondelēz has also recently pursued a similar claim over its Toblerone brand, suing a U.K. startup over a vegan product described as a Toblerone lookalike, according to Crain's Chicago Business. Separately, an unrelated dispute over a Sour Patch Kids-branded energy drink is also working its way through the courts: parents sued Ghost Beverages and Mondelēz after their children experienced adverse health effects from the drink, and the case is now on appeal after a lower court found the plaintiffs had not plausibly alleged that consumers would think the energy drinks were suitable for kids, according to Bloomberg Law. That case does not determine how the Joyride dispute will play out.
