Counterfeit W.L. Weller Lawsuit Ends In Sazerac Win

For years, whiskey drinkers have sought out W.L. Weller — with InsideHook’s Kirk Miller noting that demand for Weller 12 has escalated lately, with the impact that “secondary-market pricing for that has skyrocketed.” Sadly, there’s one thing else that may accompany bourbon for which there’s excessive demand and restricted provide — counterfeiting.

As Nicolette Baker reviews for VinePair, Sazerac — the father or mother firm of W.L. Weller — lately gained a authorized victory over an internet vendor who had duplicated W.L. Weller’s packaging and promoting one thing presupposed to be their bourbon on-line.

Particularly, the vendor, Allotted Liquor LLC, was promoting airline bottles of W.L. Weller. This drew them some undesirable consideration when, as per the authorized submitting, somebody who had seen this on-line wrote in to W.L. Weller to ask the place they may purchase extra of the airline-sized bottles.

Right here’s the issue: Sazerac doesn’t really make airline-sized bottles of W.L. Weller. Allotted’s response was that they’d bought the miniature bottles from an Etsy vendor; in response to an inquiry from Sazerac, they subsequently stopped promoting the tiny bottles on-line.

The lawsuit was determined in Sazerac’s favor, although it was for lower than they’d sought in damages. Of their submitting, Sazerac acknowledged their purpose of getting “between $20,000 and $100,000 per counterfeit mark.” Ultimately, they had been awarded a complete of $30,000 — or $15,000 for every of two counterfeit marks.

In his resolution, U.S. District Court docket Decide Otis D. Wright II identified that Allotted had been aware of Sazerac’s preliminary criticism. “Allotted’s immediate corrective motion signifies it took Sazerac’s Stop-and-Desist Letter significantly, ” Decide Wright wrote. “The damages awarded ought to subsequently additionally account for Allotted’s immediate corrective motion.”

The case can be a great reminder to anybody making a purchase order on the secondary market: guarantee that the whiskey you’re shopping for really exists within the amount that you just’re shopping for it in.