| Cerveceria
Modelo Sues in SDNY For Bootleg Corona
Hard Seltzer Sales With Sake Cited
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- ESPN
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
Feb 15 –
Cerveceria Modelo, makers of
Corona, Modelo, Pacifico and
Victoria beers, on February 15
filed a lawsuit against CE
Brand Strategies for
misappropriating the Modelo
name for "Modelo Hard
Selzer."
In a 26-page
complaint dug up by Inner City
Press in the just-filed docket
of the U.S. District Court for
the Southern District of New
York, Modelo recounts that the
defendant "failed its its
attempt to introduce a
commercially viable "hard
seltzer" into the marketplace
and, in February 2020,
launched Corona Hard Seltzer
to rectify that failure. But
Constellation cannot se the
CORONA trademark for Corona
Hard Seltzer because it is
outside the Sub-license's
express limitation to
'Beer.'"
The
attached sublicence agreement
has the definition: beer means
"beer, ale, porter, stout,
malt beverages, and any other
version of combination of the
foregoing, including non
alcoholic versison of any of
the foregoing."
The
Complaint, filed by Sullivan
& Cromwell, says that the
parties specifically agreed to
drop from the definition sake
and "other similar fermented
beverage."
Perhaps
significantly, Modelo's
complaint noted that while
Constellation has never called
the seltzer "beer" in its ads,
on the can it calls it beer
"in order to achieve a lower
tax rate for the product."
Modelo
wants, along with an
injunction, all of its
"damages and/or lost profits,
and/or Constellation's
profits, in any amount to be
proven at trial."
The case is
Cerveceria Modelo de Mexico,
S. de R.L. de C.V. v. CB Brand
Strategies, LLC et al.,
21-cr-1317 (Unassigned).
***
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