The indictment states that the brewery has produced, sold and advertised one of its “seasonal beers” under the name of “San Benito beer.”
The Puerto Rican urban artist Bad Bunny sued South Florida brewer Unbranded Brewing Company for allegedly “Unfair competition” and “Misleading advertising” in beer cans you sell under the name of San Benito and various commercial promotion items.
Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, the first name of Bad Bunny, and Rimas Entertainment, the company behind Bad Bunny, accuse the aforementioned brewery based in Hialeah (city near Miami) of making “unauthorized use of the name and image” of the Puerto Rican singer, songwriter and actor.
The indictment, filed on Tuesday, November 16, states that Unbranded Brewing Company has produced, sold and advertised one of its “seasonal beers” under the name of “San Benito beer” using Bad Bunny’s first name and the brand registered “San Benito”.
In the complaint, to which Efe had access, it is indicated that, in addition to the artistic name of Bad Bunny, the singer “uses the trademark San Benito to provide producer services” and that in August 2020 he requested his registration at the office US Patent and Trademark
It adds that Rimas Entertainment is a Florida corporation dedicated to the music production and publishing business and that “the plaintiff enjoys the exclusive right” to enter into sponsorship agreements on behalf of Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio and “exploit his name, image and trademarks. “.
It stands out that the artist has 35.8 million followers, only on Instagram, and that his debut album X 100PRE (2018), was awarded a Latin Grammy for best urban music album, in addition to being considered this 2021 by the magazine Time as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
According to the plaintiffs, the image itself and all the iconography surrounding Saint Benedict on the beer cans and promotional items of the brewery is “well known to Ocasio fans”, an iconography that includes “a bunny and a symbol of third eye “, something that reinforces even more, in case there was any doubt, that it is Bad Bunny.
For the artist and his corporation, the cans with the San Benito logo clearly use the name, the commercial brand and the image of the Puerto Rican, in addition to the fact that the brewery “has produced and sold stickers and T-shirts with the same graphic image” to promote the sale of this beer, according to the lawsuit filed in a court in the Southern District of Florida. (I)
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