Beverage trademark coverage, including brand names, registration, licensing, infringement disputes, trade dress, and online brand protection.
Sutter Home won twice in its effort to block El Bandido Yankee’s trademarks. Then the Ninth Circuit reversed, explaining why the whole mark matters and why evidence of marketplace coexistence deserved consideration. The decision offers beverage brands practical lessons about resisting expansive trademark claims and building the evidence needed to defend a name.
BuzzBallz acquired Big Sipz’s domains, redirected them to its own site, and later defeated the brand owner’s remaining counterclaims. The ruling explains why trademark timing, evidence of competitive harm, and proof supporting litigation claims matter to beverage manufacturers and wholesalers.
Beer Wolf’s comeback came with a federal lawsuit. The dispute offers practical lessons about defining licensed property, controlling trademark registrations, approving merchandise, and spelling out sell-off rights when a licensing relationship ends.
The Miller–Heileman and Miller–Schlitz disputes examine generic beer terminology and the limits of trademark exclusivity. This retrospective explores why ordinary product descriptions matter to competing brewers.
The Fifth Circuit’s 2020 Brizzy–Vizzy ruling examines fizzy beverage names, packaging differences, and the evidence needed for a trademark injunction.
Future Proof’s opening brief challenges the denial of a trademark injunction against Vizzy hard seltzer. Read the 2020 brief and record excerpts.
A 2020 dispute between 28 Mile Vodka and a brewer examines Tough Town branding, hand sanitizer, and confusion across different product markets.
The Ninth Circuit’s 2020 lipstick-mark decision examines the overall marketplace presentation of Jim Beam and Johnny Love vodka branding.
Listen to the Seventh Circuit’s 2020 oral argument over corn-syrup advertising, including discussion of ingredient evidence and the sealed record.
A 2020 wine-trademark ruling examines descriptive use of “buttery,” disputed infringement claims, and public access to the litigation record.
This archived 2020 analysis examines the Ninth Circuit’s Bad Spaniels ruling on Jack Daniel’s trademarks, parody, dilution, and expressive works.
A March 2020 ruling examines the “izzy” suffix, fizzy beverages, and the likelihood of confusion between Brizzy and Vizzy hard seltzers.
