Risk Management

Flavored vodka leads to lip litigation

July 19, 2016 Reprints

Off Beat More + Less -

The image of a pair of lips may strike many as a kind of strange focus for a 26-page appellate court opinion, not to mention the thousands of dollars in legal expenses that led to it, but that in fact is the case in a decision last week in a trademark infringement dispute over flavored vodka.

According to the July 14 ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, in July 2005, Henderson, Nevada-based JL Beverage Co. obtained a trademark showing a pair of lips for its Johnny Love line of flavored vodka.

The lips were colored red for unflavored, purple for passion fruit, yellow for “aloha,” orange for tangerine, and green for apple, according to the ruling in JL Beverage Company, L.L.C., v. Jim Beam Brands Co.

Then in 2010, Deerfield, Illinois-based Jim Beam Brands Co. entered the flavored vodka market with a line called “Pucker Vodka,” whose bottles had a prominent lip image, with the lips images also varying depending on the vodka flavor in the bottle.

Litigation ensued, with JL Beverage Co. filing suit against Jim Beam. The U.S. District Court in Reno, Nevada granted Jim Beam summary judgment dismissing the case.

But a three-judge appeals court panel reinstated the litigation. Consumers purchasing the vodkas “were not likely to exercise a high degree of care in distinguishing between the two,” and could become confused between the two brands, said the panel, in remanding the case for further proceedings.