War of the Chocolate Chips

The Chipwich is a sandwich made by placing vanilla or chocolate ice cream between two large chocolate-chip cookies, then covering the edges of the ice cream with chocolate chips. Priced at $1 and sold from street pushcarts, the Chipwich scored in the munchie market after its introduction in New York City last spring.

Initially geared to produce 20,000 sandwiches daily, the Lodi, N.J., Chipwich factory has scheduled an increase in output to 200,000 on Oct. 1, and the company is preparing supermarket and cart distribution in Sunbelt states. "It's been one of those American dreams," says Chipwich's creator Richard LaMotta, 39.

But LaMotta's dream is now melting a bit. This summer Good Humor began to sell a Chipwich lookalike, the Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Sandwich. Chipwich has filed a $13 million lawsuit against Good Humor in New York Federal District Court, charging unfair competition and trademark infringement. LaMotta claims Good Humor also took unfair advantage of confidential information gleaned last winter when Chipwich explored with Good Humor the possibility that the company would distribute Chipwich in the Northeast.

Good Humor concedes that its sandwich was developed to compete with Chipwich but denies LaMotta's other charges. Says Good Humor Attorney John Young: "It's our product, and we consider it a superior product. Their main complaint would seem to be that they don't want competition."

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