Trademark Law
Dog toy maker laps up victory over Jack Daniel’s trademark challenge at 9th Circuit
A bottle of Jack Daniel’s Tennessee whiskey is displayed next to a “Bad Spaniels” dog toy. (Photo by Jessica Gresko/The Associated Press)
A federal appeals court overturned the permanent injunction against the manufacturer of a dog poop-themed chew toy bearing a likeness to a bottle of whiskey Tuesday, ruling that Jack Daniel’s did not prove that VIP Products’ “Bad Spaniels” had caused the liquor maker reputational harm.
VIP Products—the designer of the dog toy shaped like a well-known bottle of whiskey with the printing, “Bad Spaniels: The Old No. 2 on Your Tennessee Carpet”—parodies the Jack Daniel’s “Old No. 7 Brand” mark.
Bennett Cooper, an attorney for VIP Products, rejected the idea that the toy could tarnish the liquor maker’s brand because the name “Bad Spaniels” is not similar enough for association under the Lanham Act of 1946, the federal statute that governs trademarks, according to coverage by Law360.
“They wrote on the bottle ‘43% poo by volume. 100% smelly.’ They’re evoking the image of a bottle of liquid feces, your honor,” Matthew Nicholson, an attorney for Jack Daniel’s, told a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at San Francisco. “That is an association that is tarnishing.”
In 2014, VIP Products sued Jack Daniel’s after it demanded that the company stop selling its Bad Spaniels toy. A federal judge found evidence of infringement and dilution in 2017, but later, the 9th Circuit reversed or vacated key elements of the ruling. In 2023, the case went to the U.S. Supreme Court, where it was remanded back to the lower court.
See also:
Supreme Court will hear Jack Daniel’s appeal over parody dog toy ‘Bad Spaniels’
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