Diageo has sued Deutsch Family Wine & Spirits over the redesign of Redemption whiskey, claiming the bottle has been “revised to closely mimic” Diageo’s Bourbon brand, Bulleit.
Diageo asserts that Deutsch Family “redesigned the bottle and label for a line of its whiskey beverage products in order to knock off the appearance and unfairly trade on the reputation of Diageo’s extremely popular Bulleit brand”.
In the lawsuit, filed at a US District Court in New York, Diageo stated that the packaging is “strikingly similar to that of Diageo’s Bulleit whiskey and copies the same vintage style and appearance”, therefore infringing the brand’s trademark and trade dress rights.
It claimed had tried to get “defendants to voluntarily cease their infringing activity” but Deutsch Family “refused to alter the packaging for the accused products”.