Lawsuit against Evans & Tate's Butterball chardonnay slammed

A legal website has slammed a turkey manufacturer's lawsuit against Evans & Tate's Butterball chardonnay.

Turkey company Butterball filed a complaint on December 12 in the US District Court stating that McWilliam’s Wines import and distribution in the US occurs “through brick and mortar and online retailers that allow North Carolina residents to make and receive direct purchases of its wines …” and that the company’s “acts of unfair competition and infringement ... are causing harm to Butterball in North Carolina and in this judicial district.”

Above The Law says "this lawsuit is a real turkey."

"The branding of the wine label looks nothing like Butterball’s branding, and it has the name of the wine company clearly depicted on it," the site notes. "Now, I’m sure that Butterball will at some point trot out the trademark bully’s favorite excuse and claim it had to file this lawsuit or risk losing its trademark, but that isn’t actually true. It would only be true if there were actual potential confusion or a real demonstrable infringement within Butterball’s marketplace. Neither are the case."

Butterball states that its trademarked goods and services range from turkeys and marinades to fat fryers and mobile device software. The complaint goes on to say, “The consumer goodwill associated with the BUTTERBALL Marks is one of Butterball’s most valuable assets. Accordingly, the integrity of the BUTTERBALL Marks is extremely important to Butterball and crucial to the continued vitality and growth of Butterball’s business.”

"It seems unlikely that the company can argue it is in a competitive marketplace with a wine seller at all, never mind that there might be any kind of customer confusion that could occur due to the name," says Above The Law.

Butterball is part of the Evans & Tate Expressions range, initially released in 2015 and targeted at millennials. Each product in the range is named to communicate the wine’s style and flavour profile, ie “Butterball Chardonnay”, "Fresh as a Daisy Semillon Sauvignon Blanc and “Smooth Operator Cabernet Merlot”.