Rise Brewing labels PepsiCo “Repeat Trademark Offender”

A famous cold-brew coffee company recently has labeled PepsiCo as a repeated trademark offender and further, accused it of saturating the whole market with the help of its infringing ‘Mtn Dew Rise’ brand. A lawsuit has been filed at the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Rise Brewing alleged Pepsi of misusing its commercial dominance to confuse customers present in the relevant marketplace.

PepsiCo launched the “Mtn Dew Rise” which is a caffeinated energy drink.  “The market is flooding by the larger junior user (PepsiCo) overwhelms that of the senior user (Rise Brewing) and creates a likelihood of confusion as consumers come to assume that the senior user’s products (Rise Brewing’s RISE-branded products) are really those of the junior user (PepsiCo), or that the former has become somehow affiliated with or sponsored by the latter. PepsiCo has formed with this type of branding strategy and also the company is supposed to have a long history of being a repeated trademark offender,” Rise Brewing claimed in court.

Specifically, the lawsuit left no chance in researching the history of PepsiCo and recounted PepsiCo’s all previous legal issues with other drinks brand owners including VitaminWater and Simply Orange (another Coca-Cola brand).

“PepsiCo’s actions in unlawfully adopting Rise Brewing’s mark are the latest chapter of its storied history of taking instead of innovating, a story that is well documented in prior litigations where PepsiCo has repeatedly been accused of and found liable for infringing on others’ trademark rights,” said the complaint. Rise Brewing alleged PepsiCo of adopting the strategy for destroying a leading competitor to Starbucks’ Ready-To-Drink (RTD) coffee drinks. Interestingly, they are distributed by PepsiCo through the North American Coffee Partnership.

Well, the fact that PepsiCo would have been aware of Rise Brewing’s trademarks cannot be denied as PepsiCo is such a big brand having great goodwill in the market. Rise Brewing said, “Our rival is dismissive of its concerns when first informed of its alleged trademark infringement.” Now, we have to wait for the decision in the case of trying this alleged product.