Kosher Today: Protecting the Kosher Symbol with Attorney Ira Sacks
Host: Menachem Lubinsky Guest: Ira Sacks, trademark attorney representing OK Kosher and other kashrus certification agencies
Episode Description
Every day, kashrus agencies across the country are fighting a quiet legal battle: companies slapping a "K" in a circle on products that were never actually certified. On this episode of Kosher Today, host Menachem Lubinsky talks with veteran trademark attorney Ira Sacks about what happens behind the scenes when a kosher symbol gets misused — from innocent mix-ups after a company acquisition to outright counterfeiting. Sacks, who has represented OK Kosher since 2016 and built his career enforcing trademarks for major fashion and fragrance brands, walks through the mechanics of cease-and-desist letters, consumer alerts, and the surprisingly high stakes of a small circle-K on a product label.
What They Discuss
- From fashion counterfeits to kosher law — Sacks built his career doing antitrust and trademark work at large firms, then brand enforcement for fashion and fragrance companies, before a connection through a jewelry company's legal officer led him to OK Kosher in 2016.
- Why people misuse kosher symbols — Sacks estimates a quarter to half of OK Kosher's cases involve genuine confusion (mistaking the circle-K for a generic kosher symbol, or for "keto"), while the rest simply calculate that the risk of getting caught is low.
- The value baked into a certification mark — as Menachem notes from a rabbi he once heard speak, misusing a kosher symbol isn't just a labeling error, it's effectively stealing the goodwill and trust that agency has built.
- How the process actually plays out — a cease-and-desist letter, weekly follow-ups, and often a public "kashrus alert" so consumers know a product is no longer certified, all while balancing accuracy to avoid business libel.
- Why lawsuits rarely happen — federal court judgments can take one to three years, so the real priority is getting a voluntary stop to new sales rather than chasing product recalls or courtroom wins.
- Passover crunches — mislabeled "Kosher for Passover" products create a race against the calendar, since the holiday's eight-day window can end before legal action ever catches up.
- Retail-level violations — cases involving restaurants and stores that keep using a certification mark after losing supervision, or after breaking down bulk kosher goods (like nuts sold from a barrel) into loose, mislabeled displays.
- Circle K vs. OK Kosher — a real (and lawful) point of consumer confusion, including an anecdote about a 95-year-old man convinced a Circle K gas station must be kosher.
- Consumers as the best line of defense — kosher shoppers, including former offenders turned informants, are often the first to flag a problem, making detailed complaint records valuable if a case ever reaches a judge.
- Repeat offenders and shell games — the same "scoundrels" resurfacing under new corporate names, or goods rerouted through different Mexican factories after one supply chain gets shut down.
- What damages actually look like — Sacks explains why untangling how much of a product's revenue is attributable to a kosher symbol (versus brand, price, or quality) makes damages hard to calculate, and why he aims to recover legal costs rather than punitive windfalls.
- Advice for agencies — register your mark with the U.S. Trademark Office, build a network watching for suspicious labeling, and think internationally, since certified products now travel worldwide and enforcement varies wildly by country.
Notable Moments
- A story about a discount grocery chain that once argued a kosher symbol mistakenly printed on bacon couldn't be "confusing" to anyone — a case study in the legal standard of "likelihood of confusion."
- The tale of Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda demanding kosher pasta at a moment's notice, only to learn the plant that made it was already OU-certified.
- A vendor caught displaying five different kosher certification symbols at a trade show, unable to say which one — if any — actually applied to them.
About the Guest
Ira Sacks is a trademark attorney based in New York who has represented OK Kosher since 2016, along with several other kosher and non-kosher certification organizations. His practice focuses on brand enforcement, drawing on decades of experience protecting trademarks in the fashion and fragrance industries before shifting into kashrus law.
About the Host
For Menachem Lubinsky and Lubicom Marketing and Business Consulting
Call 718.854.4450 or e-mail mlubinsky@lubicom.com
This show was Produced and edited by thepodwaves.com
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