WASHINGTON, June 10 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court

declined on Monday to consider supermarket chain Kroger's ( KR )

request to block Grubhub's use of the food-delivery company's

fork-and-knife logo based on allegations that it would cause

confusion with the Kroger ( KR ) meal-kit service Home Chef's logo.

The justices turned away Kroger's ( KR ) appeal of a lower court's

ruling that Grubhub's logo was not similar enough to Home Chef's

to justify granting an injunction prohibiting its use due to

alleged marketplace confusion. Grubhub is a subsidiary of

Netherlands-based Just Eat Takeaway.com.

Just Eat Takeaway.com changed Grubhub's logo to resemble its

own logo, a silhouette of a house with a fork and knife in the

center, after buying the Chicago-based company in 2021.

Cincinnati-headquartered Kroger ( KR ), the biggest grocer in the

United States by revenue, sent Grubhub a cease-and-desist letter

based on Home Chef's logo, which also features a fork and knife

inside of a house silhouette.

Grubhub sued in Illinois federal court later in 2021,

seeking a declaration that it did not violate Kroger's ( KR ) trademark

rights. Kroger ( KR ) responded with a request for a preliminary

injunction against Grubhub using its new logo.

A magistrate judge said consumer confusion was likely enough

to justify an injunction against Grubhub, but U.S. District

Judge Charles Norgle disagreed and rejected Kroger's ( KR ) request.

The Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed

Norgle's decision last year.

"We do not see how a consumer interacting with the Grubhub

House Logo could reasonably believe that she was engaging with

Home Chef, particularly where the accused mark prominently

features Grubhub's own brand name," Judge John Lee wrote for the

7th Circuit.

Kroger ( KR ) told the justices that its case illustrated how

courts analyze the risk of consumer confusion in "starkly

different, subjective ways," creating "incomplete, unbalanced,

and unpredictable trademark infringement decisions."