Energy Drink Gatorade wins the Trademark Battle over its 'Sports Fuel' Trademark

August 11,2018:

PepsiCo owned Gatorade Company faced a law suit filed by an Illinois based nutrition consultant called SportFuel.

Gatorade, branded itself The Sports Fuel company launching an ad campaign which advertised energy bars, protein powder and a sports drink. But sports fuel company expressed displeasure on the grounds that people may be misled into thinking that the former is using later’s trademark thus effecting the image of the company.

Gatorade has been accused of using misleading trademark which will lead to unfair competition and false designation of origin in violation. Therefore, it was asked to stop using the Sports Fuel name, to which Gatorade replied that Sports Fuel can also be a source indicator of its products and the word can have more than one source. The  sports fuel terminology was being used for several years and did not resemble any product.

The court determined that the SportFuel trademark lacked distinctiveness and otherwise that Gatorade’s campaign was not likely to confuse consumers but fair use and the judgment was in favour of Gatorade.

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