The big dog in the whiskey world, Jack Daniels has filed a trademark infringement lawsuit over “confusingly similar” packaging against the distiller of boutique brand, Popcorn Sutton’s Tennessee Whiskey. (Read the AP article in USA Today)
Photo by Bruce Schreiner, AP
According to the suit filed October 18, 2013 in Nashville, Jack Daniels is especially taking issue with Popcorn Sutton’s recent switch from a mason jar to a beveled squarish bottle–too close for comfort to Jack’s visual branding, which has remained virtually unchanged for decades.
Both bottles also have black labels with white, stagecoachy lettering and border flourishes.
Some may be wondering what ol’ No. 7—untouchably #1 in sales—could possibly have to worry about; after all, isn’t it one of the most iconic and widely recognized brands in all of liquordom? Perhaps. (Okay, yes.) But a big brand with a lot of market share has, by the same token, potentially a lot to lose should a competitor be confused with–or even appear to be associated with–its own product line.
To cite the suit: “Defendants’ use of the new Popcorn Sutton’s trade dress in connection with their Tennessee white whiskey is likely to cause purchasers and prospective purchasers of the product to believe mistakenly that it is a new Tennessee white whiskey product in the Jack Daniel’s line.”
Is Popcorn Sutton a packaging copy cat? That will be for the judge to decide.
As for a taste test…one can only hope that gets taken to court. (Jury duty, anyone?)
Jack Daniels Props., Inc. v. J&M Concepts, LLC, No. 13-1156 (U.S. Dist. Ct., M.D. Tenn., filed October 18, 2013)
