DuetsBlog Collaborations in Creativity & the Law

Tag Archives: Pepsi

Taste Infringement?

By on Posted in Advertising, Branding, Food, Guest Bloggers, Infringement, Marketing, Non-Traditional Trademarks, Taste, Trademarks, TTAB

    We’ve spent some time here discussing the world-famous Coca-Cola brand. Most recently, David Mitchell wrote about the incredible consistency of the Coca-Cola brand over the past 125 years. A while back Dave Taylor wrote a nice Ode to the Brand of Brands, the King of Cola: Coke. And, let’s not forget my humble suggestion that… Continue Reading

Serving Lawsuits With Your Morning Orange Juice

By on Posted in Infringement, Law Suits

Do these containers seem similar to you? Confusingly similar? That is what Coca-Cola, owner of Simply Orange, is claiming.  In a recently filed trade dress and patent infringement suit Coca-Cola claims that its Simply Orange container is nonfunctional, contains a patented closure lid, and the new Trop50 packaging is likely to deceive and confuse customers.  PepsiCo… Continue Reading

Are Georgia-Pacific’s Paper Towel Lawsuits All Wet?

By on Posted in Branding, Law Suits, Trademarks

There has been a fair amount of ink spilled in the IP blogosphere about last month’s Georgia Pacific v. Von Drehle opinion from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.  This is one of several cases that Georgia-Pacific has brought to stop the "stuffing" of off-brand (i.e. non-Georgia-Pacific brand) paper towels in GP’s proprietary enMotion® paper… Continue Reading

When Holes in Markets Can’t Be Filled

By on Posted in Branding, Guest Bloggers, Marketing, Product Packaging

 —David Mitchel, Vice President of Norton Mitchel Marketing Successful brands often find holes in markets that need to be filled. There are numerous examples to illustrate this point. Microsoft found a great niche in the computer software market and their success made Bill Gates one of the richest individuals on the planet. Apple’s iPod was… Continue Reading

Trademark Initial Interest Confusion: It’s The Real Thing

By on Posted in Advertising, Branding, Food, Infringement, Keyword Ads, Marketing, Trademarks

A little while back I wrote about the Likelihood of Confusion test in Trademark Law and how it protects trademark owners against much more than simply likelihood of confusion as to source.   I also wrote about how Wolf Appliance was able to convince a federal judge in Wisconsin to grant a preliminary injunction barring Viking Range from selling a… Continue Reading

Pepsi Throwback: The Renewed Choice of a Generation

By on Posted in Advertising, Branding, Food, Goodwill, Guest Bloggers, Marketing, Product Packaging

        In December, PepsiCo introduced the United States market to a new, special limited time offer. From December 28-February 22, the Pepsi brand would offer Pepsi Throwback. This version of Pepsi contains real sugar, just as Pepsi products did until the early 1980s. This is the second market trial of Pepsi Throwback, as it had originally… Continue Reading

G Doesn’t Grasp Successful Marketing

By on Posted in AlphaWatch, Branding, Food, Guest Bloggers, Marketing, Product Packaging, Trademarks

In November, I wrote about how Gatorade’s 2009 re-branding as G has been a complete failure. G was an ill-conceived approach to slowing sales in 2007 and 2008. It damaged brand equity, confused consumers and didn’t reverse the trend of falling unit sales. In the final paragraph of my last blog, I noted that PepsiCo… Continue Reading

What’s G? For Gatorade, G is Gruesome

By on Posted in AlphaWatch, Branding, Food, Guest Bloggers, Marketing, Trademarks

Gatorade’s efforts to re-brand as “G” have been a dismal failure. It seems as if the brand management staff at Gatorade consumed a few too many cold beverages while making this decision, and I’m not referring to refrigerated Gatorades. The history of the G re-brand has its roots in 2007. Unit sales were flat in… Continue Reading

Holiday Inn’s Relaunch: Do We Have a Problem, Houston?

By on Posted in Advertising, Branding, Look-For Ads, Trademarks

Time for me to play dumb consumer and ask an honest question.  What is the conventional wisdom in relaunching or revitalizing a brand:  do you tell consumers that you’re doing it, or not?  I suspect that there is no universal answer, but Holiday Inn’s "relaunch" has admittedly caught my attention.  (It caught Steve’s attention here.) … Continue Reading