In a modern day version of the religious classic narrative of David versus Goliath, a small-business coffee company has taken on a food and beverage giant. Instead of stones and a sling shot, a nitro-coffee brewing company has successfully convinced a judge that the giant PepsiCo had infringed on its trademark.
According to a report in Eat This,Not That!, nitro coffee brewing company Rise Brewing has won a preliminary legal fight against food and beverage giant PepsiCo. The soda maker had called its new drink Mountain Dew Rise. Now, it has to pause the name as per the ruling of a federal judge.
In June, a nitro-coffee brewing firm filed a complaint against PepsiCo as the beverage maker was using the name Rise for its latest energy drink called Mtn Dew Rise. The coffee brewing firm has been making a canned coffee product called Rise.
It looked as if the Mountain Dew brand had positioned itself as a caffeinated juice beverage that could replace the position that was occupied by caffeinated beverages including coffee or classic energy drinks such as Red Bull, Monster or Rockstar.
Rise had complained in June that the soda maker had “rebuffed” the coffee maker’s less formal complaint asking them not to use the word Rise in their beverage. The firm also called PepsiCo “a habitual trademark infringer.”
Reuters reported that a U.S. district judge in Manhattan had ruled in favor of Rise Brewing. On Wednesday, Judge Lorna Schofield granted a preliminary injunction. It “bars PepsiCo from using the Mtn Dew Rise name commercially and from selling products under any other name that that would be confusingly similar to Rise Brewing’s ‘Rise’ trademarks while the lawsuit is proceeding.”
Reuters also reported that PepsiCo had said that their product was a “fruit-flavored energy drink” and not a canned coffee drink like the products manufactured by Rise Brewing.
The attorney who represented Rise Brewing said that the company was “very pleased” with the preliminary ruling by the judge in the ongoing legal case. The attorney for PepsiCo decline to comment.
