from the it’s-baaaaahd dept
How a lot vodka would it’s important to drink earlier than you mistakenly and drunkenly believed you had been consuming it out of a shoe? That’s basically the query that has been raised by a vodka distillery that sued a web based sneaker market for declaratory judgment that no trademark infringement exists between them.
I’m positive you’re confused; I can clarify. GOAT is a web based resale store for attire, with a heavy deal with sneakers. GOAT additionally has constructed a fame for itself as being on the very least overly protecting of its logos, or as a trademark bully at worst. Trippy Goat, alternatively, is a vodka distillery out of Maryland. Trippy Goat doesn’t promote footwear, however they do have a merchandise part on their web site the place a grand complete of 4 items of attire are supplied: 3 shirts and one jacket.
Regardless of this, and regardless of the businesses being in wildly totally different product markets, GOAT started selecting a combat with Trippy Goat over logos.
Trippy Goat says the dispute started in October 2023, when GOAT despatched it a cease-and-desist letter alleging that its use of goat-themed branding infringed GOAT’s trademark rights. Within the letter, GOAT cited “concern[s] that customers shall be confused as to an affiliation or relationship between the [parties’] merchandise and/or corporations,” Trippy Goat contends. When the spirits firm and merch model refused to desert its marks, it claims that GOAT escalated the matter by submitting an opposition with the U.S. Trademark Trial and Enchantment Board (“TTAB”), looking for to dam registration of all 4 of Trippy Goat’s purposes, which cowl alcoholic drinks, branded attire, and associated on-line retail providers.
In furtherance of its opposition, GOAT has argued that the overlap within the two corporations’ choices, together with attire, “creates a probability of client confusion,” even when their core items differ.
I gained’t say that the authorized workforce for GOAT is silly, however they positive are making some silly claims. And so they’re silly for quite a lot of causes. In the beginning, there’s roughly zero probability of buyer confusion right here. The attire providing from Trippy Goat is each restricted and options branding that encompasses the totality of its identify, not merely “goat.” No one is mixing these two manufacturers up. And that’s partly as a result of, once more, vodka and sneakers will not be remotely in the identical product classes. Then you possibly can add to all of that the straightforward indisputable fact that the time period “goat” within the attire house is all over, suggesting restricted enforcement by GOAT prior to now.
And so Trippy Goat sued GOAT, looking for declaratory judgement that its model shouldn’t be infringing. Sarcastically, a part of the distillery’s argument facilities round GOAT’s behavior for trademark bullying, which had the knock on impact of exhibiting simply how widespread the usage of “goat” is within the attire market.
The lawsuit additionally positions GOAT’s TTAB motion in a broader sample of enforcement. Trippy Goat accuses the resale model of participating in an “unjustified trademark bullying” marketing campaign, noting that between 2023 and 2025 alone, it has filed an array of lawsuits and “greater than 80 opposition or cancellation proceedings” towards different “goat”-formative marks, many for attire and associated items. This widespread coexistence of goat-related marks, Trippy Goat claims, “undermines GOAT’s assertion of unique rights” and demonstrates that the time period is each “extremely diluted” and used throughout “extensively divergent markets.”
In opposition to that background, Trippy Goat is asking the courtroom to declare that its goat-centric logos – spanning the whole lot from spirits to branded hats and t-shirts – “don’t infringe” GOAT’s rights, and that it’s “entitled to each use and register these marks” going ahead. The corporate can be looking for to cancel a number of of GOAT’s registrations on the idea of “non-use for particular items and providers” recognized within the sneaker platform’s trademark portfolio.
I gained’t fake to not love when stuff like this occurs. There will be no higher final result then to have, because of an organization trademark bullying one other, to have the logos over which it did the bullying yanked away from them consequently. I clearly don’t know for sure that’s what’s going to occur right here, however the case laid out by Trippy Goat is compelling, to say the least.
On the very least, I count on the courtroom to provide Trippy Goat the okay to have its logos registered. Another final result could be, frankly, trippy.
Filed Underneath: attire, footwear, trademark, vodka
Firms: goat, trippy goat
