Tag Archives: wine lawsuits

Winebits 242: Moscato, lawsuits, wine prices

? Is the moscato craze over? The Wine Curmudgeon wonders, because plans have been announced for a $15 moscato called SIP, from the same people who do Layer Cake. Given that moscato ?s popularity is based on the fact that it ?s cheap and sweet, that someone thinks there is a market for a pricey moscato that is not quite as sweet means the wise guys are starting to look at the moscato market. And when the wise guys start to look at something, it ?s time for the rest of us to look elsewhere.

? Copycat bottles? Yes, another wine business intellectual property dispute. This time, reports thedrinksbusiness.com, one Champagne maker is threatening to sue another because the latter ?s bottle shape is too similar to the former ?s. Apparently, there is more than just the way the bottle looks ? this particular shape affects how the wine ages or tastes or something. I ?m not quite clear on that. Still, aren ?t you glad I follow this stuff, so you don ?t have to?

? ?Get over it! ? Or so says the Wine Spectator ?s Matt Kramer, who is apparently tired of hearing people complain about various parts of the wine business, including wine prices. ?Now, you or I may not like it. Hell, we most certainly do not like it. But what we like or don't like is pretty much beside the point. The juggernaut will keep rolling. ? Ah, bliss ? is it any wonder I so enjoy the Spectator?

Barefoot, flipflop, and the wacky, wonderful world of wine trademarks

Barefoot, flipflopRegular visitors here know how the Wine Curmudgeon feels about wine companies that sue other wine companies over similar labels and similar names. Curmudgeonly, of course.

The most infamous lawsuit of recent years was the faceoff between the company that owns Cristal, the mega-pricey Champagne, and the $7 Spanish cava, Cristalino. But there have been a fair number of others, including Anheuser-Busch vs. an Argentine wine producer called Budini, and YellowTail vs. the Wine Group, who were fighting whether a kangaroo looked like a wallaby.

As much fun as these were, they pale in comparison to what could be the next big trademark and tradedress lawsuit in the wine business — if E&J Gallo and the Wine Group square off over two fabulously successful brands, Gallo’s Barefoot and Wine Group’s flipflop. More, after the jump:

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Winebits 178: Wine sales, mommy wines, wine and doughnuts

? Premium wine sales increasing? That's the forecast from the Silicon Valley Bank, which lends money to the wine business. It says sales of wine costing more than $20 a bottle could increase as much as 12 percent in 2011 over 2010 and that consumers seem to be ready to stop trading down. It also notes, as so many others don't, that the increase is just the first step in regaining ground lost during the recession. Expect continued discounting through the third quarter this year, and wines that cost $50 or more won't do as well.

? Bring on the lawsuits: Just when you thought that a bruised and battered wine business couldn't afford any more silly lawsuits — or could come up with any silly lawsuits — we have dueling legal challenges between MommyJuice, a Clos La Chance label introduced last fall, and Mommy ?s Time Out, an Italian brand. Wines & Vines notes that the two sides are accusing each other of various trademark improprieties, and there is even a bit of a discussion about the controversy surrounding mommy wines.

? Pairing wine and doughnuts: Or, as the Santa Cruz Sentinel reports, "Poetic Cellars, a winery tucked in the hills of Soquel, was the site Saturday for the filming of a proposed reality television pilot that matches wines of different varieties with doughnuts chock-full of sugars and jellies." What's next? Scores for doughnuts? Please save us from that: "88, with hints of caramelized sugar, day-old frying grease, and toasting cream filling."

Wine names, lawsuits, and being silly

wine name lawsuitsLast week’s post about the Cristal lawsuit that forced Cristalino to change its label because of so-called confusion over the latter’s name was hugely popular, and the Wine Curmudgeon is always happy to give his visitors more of what they want. So I called my old pal, the well-known trademark and trade dress attorney, A.M.B. Chaser, to ask her what else might be on the wine name litigation front.

“Frankly, Jeff,” she said, “I’m jealous of the attorneys who worked the Cristalino case for Cristal. Talk about genius. To say nothing of the fees they generated from something as simple as that.”

After the jump, Chaser’s analysis of potential lawsuits:

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