NorwichBulletin reports that Connecticut vodka maker KC Brang’s Food & Beverage LLC, maker of Kra-ze Vodka, is under fire from Casella Wines, maker of Yellow Tail wine, over the use of brackets around their product name. KC Brang and Casella Wines are negotiating a solution, but KC Brang has exhausted its funds during the legal battle. This has prevented the family-owned company from growing their brand and forcing the company to run on the $180,000 they make annually from vodka sales.
I, for one, assumed the brackets around Yellow Tail were stylistic, not trademarked, and I doubt very seriously that there will be any brand confusion between Yellow Tail wine and Kra-ze vodka.
Maria
They are brackets, how could anyone copyright punctuation!?! I don’t drink [kra-ze] vodka, but I am gonna now (never actually heard of them before). I can see copyright infringement if they used the exact Yellow Tail logo, or at least something similar, but JUST the brackets? Such a stupid play by Yellow Tail. Was a fan of their wine, I shall NOT drink Yellow Tail again! I will spread the word about this as well. Looks like less Moscato & more Vodka for me! That’s it the next time I see someone use an exclamation point I’m suing!!!
Robert Brodrecht
Yeah, I don’t think Yellow Tail has a leg to stand on here. It seems bogus to trademark brackets around a product and, even if it were legit, vodka seems like a significantly different market than wine. So, there would be no brand confusion.