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Logan Paul’s Prime sued for Olympic trademark infringement

23 July 2024 By Jessica Mason

Prime Hydration, the drink brand founded by Logan Paul and KSI, is facing a federal lawsuit from the US Olympic Committee.

According to reports from the NY Post, the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee has alleged in a lawsuit filed in the District of Colorado that Prime Hydration used trademarked phrases in its online marketing, which included the terms: “Olympic”,” “Olympian,” “Team USA” and “Going for gold”.

NBC News highlighted that the committee had written in its lawsuit that “Prime Hydration’s conduct has been and continues to be willful, deliberate, and in bad faith, with malicious intent to trade on the goodwill of the USOPC and the IOC.”

The committee also reportedly described the trademark infringement as “blatant”. The reports also alleged that Prime had caused “damage and irreparable injury” to the organisation that supports Team USA’s athlete.

The New York Times also stated that the suit was seeking all of the profit that Prime brought in from products that had been infringing on Olympic trademarks.

NBC News reiterated that the variant of Prime which has been made in partnership with NBA superstar Kevin Durant, who is a member of the US men’s basketball team competing in Paris, has been described as a “Team USA Kevin Durant Drink” as well as the “Kevin Durant Olympic Prime Drink”.

Currently, Coca-Cola Enterprises has the exclusive right to use Olympic trademarks and the lawsuit has stated that to secure this exclusivity Coca-Cola has made a “significant monetary contribution”.

Taking this into consideration, it also alleged in the lawsuit, that the trademark infringement by Prime had threatened the value of the sponsorship deal.

The suit stated that the Olympic Committee’s lawyer has been in contact with Prime to ask the company to stop using the trademarks, but, despite this, the drinks were still reportedly being shipped out to stores and featured on the brand’s LinkedIn account.

The variant in question has since been removed from the company website and from social media posts that were said to have been mentioned in the suit, according to NBC News.

Prime Hydration was originally founded in 2022 by Paul and KSI, whose real name is Olajide Olayinka Williams Olatunji. Since then, the brand has risen in popularity and now makes both a sports drink and energy drinks as well as makes partnership deals with athletes to boost its presence.

Last July, the FDA led an investigation for Prime energy drinks following safety concerns after public anxiety allegedly heightened following a call from US senator Chuck Schumer’s to investigate the drink.

This summer, football star Lionel Messi partnered with White Claw owner Mark Anthony Brands to release a sports drink named Más+ by Messi to go head-to-head with Prime and entered into the US$33 billion category using the tagline: ‘Positive hydration’ as part of its marketing.

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