Company Urges Federal Court to Grant Injunction in Trademark Claim

AUSTIN – Future Proof Brands LLC, the small entrepreneurial beverage company marketing the Brizzy® premium hard seltzer, has fired the latest salvo in a bitter trademark infringement lawsuit against industry giant Molson Coors (NYSE: TAP).

In a filing yesterday in an Austin federal court, Future Proof attorneys allege that Molson Coors has violated a written agreement to pause the planned launch of its competing Vizzy product, instead rolling out the soundalike product ahead of a previously announced late March date. Brizzy® and Vizzy are both canned hard seltzer products with nearly identical names.

“This was set up as a classic bait and switch,” says Future Proof CEO Justin Fenchel. “With this agreement in place, we briefly delayed our request for injunctive relief to accommodate what we believed to be good faith discussions with Molson Coors, at Molson Coors’s request. We view the early launch of Vizzy as a blatant violation of our agreement with Molson Coors, and that it also underscores Molson Coors’s gamesmanship, and its intent to derail any attempt by Future Proof to avoid further litigation.”

In yesterday’s reply motion to the court, attorneys claim that Future Proof is entitled to the broadest possible protection against infringement, based on the nature of the Brizzy trademark, the similarity of the products, the nearly identical name and the shared marketing channels of Brizzy and Vizzy.

The court previously set a March 25 hearing date to consider the case.

Future Proof filed its infringement claim on Feb. 6, 2020, after launching the four-flavor Brizzy line in September of 2019. Brizzy is currently sold in more than 1,000 locations in five states, and the company projects Brizzy sales to exceed $2.5 million in 2020, with plans to continue expanding distribution.

Future Proof is represented in the case by Christopher J. Schwegmann, Kent Krabill and Chisara Ezie-Boncoeur of Lynn Pinker Cox & Hurst LLP in Dallas.

The case is Future Proof Brands LLC v. Molson Coors Beverage Company f/k/a Molson Coors Brewing Company and MillerCoors LLC., NO. 1:20-cv-144 in the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas.

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