Sazerac settles bourbon trademark dispute
Distillery Sazerac Brands and Tennessee-based Prichard’s Distillery have settled a trademark dispute, more than three years after Prichard’s sued.
In August 2014, Prichard’s filed a complaint at the US District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee against two of Sazerac’s distilleries—Buffalo Trace Distillery and A Smith Bowman Distillery.
Prichard’s had begun selling distilled spirts under the trademarks ‘ Double barreled’ (US number 4,420,193) and ‘Benjamin Prichard’s double barreled bourbon’ (number 2,809,224) in 2002.
The bourbon has won national and international whisky competitions, according to Prichard’s.
Prichard’s uses a double-barrelled shotgun in its marketing of the bourbon, including an image of the gun on the goods.
The complaint said that the company’s use of the trademarks “connotes attributes of toughness and strength associated with … double-barrelled shotguns”.
According to the suit, Sazerac’s ‘A Smith Bowman Limited Edition Double Barrel Bourbon Whiskey’ and ‘Buffalo Trace Experimental Collection Double Barreled’ bourbons infringed the marks.
“Upon information and belief, defendants chose to use the mark ‘Double barreled’ to create an association with Prichard’s distinctive … brands,” said the suit.
More than three years later, on Thursday, November 30, US District Judge Bernard Friedman signed an order of dismissal.
The parties had reached a settlement agreement in August this year.
Friedman dismissed the complaint with prejudice and without costs or attorneys’ fees.
Sazerac seems to be no stranger to trademark lawsuits.
In April, it settled a clash with Diageo, which had claimed that Sazerac had diluted its Bulleit brand by redesigning the bottle and label for a line of Sazerac’s alcohol beverage products, “in order to knock-off the appearance and unfairly trade on the reputation” of Bulleit.
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