A claimant demands $1.5 billion from Kraft Heinz and other companies over the Polly-O cheese brand

The Polly-O brand, known for its mozzarella and string cheese and for a logo featuring a yellow bird in a chef's hat, dates back to 1899, when Giuseppe Pollio opened a store on Columbia Street. According to the son, his father, Vincent Failla, began working for Pollio at age 15 and eventually became "the face of the company." In 1967 he bought the G. Pollio & Sons store for $5,000; according to the contract attached to the lawsuit, the deal covered all stock, inventory, goodwill and fixtures, along with the trade name G. Pollio & Sons. The store operated until the late 1970s, and Vincent Failla died in 2004. 

The plaintiff acknowledges that the Pollio family separately sold its factories to Kraft in 1986. However, in his version of events, the corporate owners attached the brand to their "bird-branded cheese" and sold an image of "real Brooklyn" and 1899 heritage without paying for the reputation that, he claims, his father had acquired. 

The lawsuit is in its early stages; the claims set out in it have not yet been substantiated in court.