Bottles of Popcorn Sutton’s Tennessee White Whiskey and Jack Daniel’s Tennessee whiskey sit side by side at a Louisville, Ky., liquor store. The owner of the Jack Daniel’s trademark has filed a federal lawsuit claiming the shape of the Popcorn Sutton bottle amounts to a trademark infringement because it so closely resembles the Jack Daniel’s bottle.
Marvin “Popcorn” SuttonLOUISVILLE, Ky. – A white whiskey named for a famed Appalachian moonshiner started out being sold in Mason jars, to honor its roguish roots, but switched to square-shaped bottling. That new look has the upstart distiller embroiled in a trademark infringement fight with Jack Daniel’s Tennessee whiskey.
The legal feuding pits an industry blue blood against a tiny distiller that proudly claims to carry on the tradition of moonshiner Marvin “Popcorn” Sutton. The irascible Sutton wrote a paperback called “Me and My Likker” and recorded videos on how to make moonshine.
Sutton, known for his long gray beard and faded overalls, took his own life in 2009 rather than go to prison for making white lightning.
Now, the whiskey maker he inspired is facing its own legal problems.
The owner of the Jack Daniel’s trademark sued the Nashville, Tenn.-based distiller of Popcorn Sutton’s Tennessee White Whiskey. The lawsuit claims the bottling and labeling for the Popcorn Sutton product is “confusingly similar” to the ubiquitous packaging for Jack Daniel’s.