{"id":475,"date":"2021-09-24T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-24T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/norrismclaughlin.com\/mtym\/2021\/09\/24\/battle-over-black-irish-liqueur\/"},"modified":"2021-09-24T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-09-24T00:00:00","slug":"battle-over-black-irish-liqueur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/norrismclaughlin.com\/mtym\/trademarks\/battle-over-black-irish-liqueur\/","title":{"rendered":"The Battle over BLACK IRISH Liqueur"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Mariah Carey is in the middle of a brawl with Irish whiskey makers over her choice of brand name for her new cream liqueur products.<\/p>\n<p>On August 16, Ms. Carey posted a photo on Instagram with the caption &#8220;Introducing BLACK IRISH. Two years in the making.&#8221; The brand name was inspired by Ms. Carey&#8217;s heritage \u2013 her father, who was Black, and her mother, whose roots were Irish.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>BLACK IRISH Liqueur in the U.S.<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>In the U.S., Ms. Carey&#8217;s company, Lotion LLC, currently holds an &#8220;intent to use&#8221; application pending before the <a href=\"https:\/\/norrismclaughlin.com\/mtym\/146\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">United States Patent and Trademark Office (&#8220;USPTO&#8221;)<\/a>. The application for BLACK IRISH in the U.S. was filed for several classes of goods, including, among other things, &#8220;wine; alcoholic coffee-based beverages; alcoholic beverages, except beer.&#8221; That mark has gone through relatively unscathed except for a challenge by the Irish Whiskey Association, which initially filed an extension of time to oppose the mark; however, no opposition was ultimately filed. Lotion\u00a0did, however, amend the description to state that &#8220;to the extent any of the aforementioned goods contains whiskey, such whiskey shall be Irish Whiskey.&#8221; The bottle packaging notes \u00a0&#8220;CRAFTED IN IRELAND.&#8221; The product was launched in the U.S. in August 2021. Once Lotion files a declaration with the USPTO showing &#8220;use in commerce,&#8221; a requirement in the U.S., the mark should proceed to registration.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>The Trademark in the EU<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>In the EU, the situation is different. There, the BLACK IRISH trademark is owned by Darker Still Spirits Co., which acquired the name in 2015 and has been selling a stout blended whiskey since June 2020. Ms. Carey filed for a trademark in the EU, but her mark was filed after the mark owned by Darker Still Spirits. That has not stopped Ms. Carey&#8217;s legal team from fighting for the mark in the EU, and the battles continue. The European trademark office is still evaluating the positions regarding the BLACK IRISH trademark.<\/p>\n<p>The takeaway \u2013 be careful about geographic indications, even those that appear evocative or fanciful, as discussed in one of our recent posts, &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/norrismclaughlin.com\/mtym\/2109\">When It Is More Than Just a Name \u2013 Trademark Significance of Geographic Indications<\/a>.&#8221; It is also important to consider all areas of geographic expansion for your product and conduct a full clearance before moving forward with a brand name.<\/p>\n<p>If you have any questions about this post or any related <a href=\"https:\/\/norrismclaughlin.com\/mtym\/190\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">intellectual property<\/a> issue, please feel free to contact me at <a href=\"mailto:dmdefilippis@norris-law.com\">dmdefilippis@norris-law.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mariah Carey is in the middle of a brawl with Irish whiskey makers over her choice of brand name for her new cream liqueur products. On August 16, Ms. Carey posted a photo on Instagram with the caption &#8220;Introducing BLACK IRISH. Two years in the making.&#8221; The brand name was inspired by Ms. Carey&#8217;s heritage [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":407,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[298,46],"tags":[366,438,395,275],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.1 (Yoast SEO v22.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Battle over BLACK IRISH Liqueur - More Than Your Mark\u00ae<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/norrismclaughlin.com\/mtym\/trademarks\/battle-over-black-irish-liqueur\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Battle over BLACK IRISH Liqueur\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mariah Carey is in the middle of a brawl with Irish whiskey makers over her choice of brand name for her new cream liqueur products. On August 16, Ms. Carey posted a photo on Instagram with the caption &#8220;Introducing BLACK IRISH. Two years in the making.&#8221; The brand name was inspired by Ms. Carey&#8217;s heritage [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/norrismclaughlin.com\/mtym\/trademarks\/battle-over-black-irish-liqueur\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"More Than Your Mark\u00ae\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-09-24T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/norrismclaughlin.com\/mtym\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2022\/12\/Brand-1024x719.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"719\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Danielle M. 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