Tequila company accuses Kendall Jenner's 818 tequila brand of 'blatantly' copying

Kendall Jenner's 818 Tequila brand is being sued by Texas-based company Tequila 512 as they allege that 818 Tequila has "simply and blatantly" copied their branding.

Last year, Tequila 512 had called on Jenner to "change" the name and branding of her new tequila line due to "similarities" between the two and now the company has filed a lawsuit in California on Wednesday, February 16 for trademark infringement, false designation of origin and unfair competition.

Trademarked in 2015, Tequila 512 say their branding uses "immediately recognizable 512 mark in black lettering inside a vertical yellow rectangle," according to NBC News and accuses Jenner's brand of using similar branding with "immaterial tweaks."

Similarities between the names of the two brands are also highlighted as both use a "prominent area code" as Tequila 512 refers to Austin, Texas while Jenner's 818 Tequila is in relation to the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles.

Kim Kardashian also gets a mention in the lawsuit - in reference to an image of Tequila 512 being used in promotional material for 818 Tequila on Kim's app, Kim Kardashian: Hollywood.

"Plaintiff did not authorize this use in any way. Either Defendant intentionally used Plaintiff's bottle, hoping to further blur the lines between the two products, or Defendant was itself confused about the difference between the two brands," per E! News.

Jenner and Kardashian are not named as defendants in the lawsuit.

A spokesperson for 818 Tequila said in a statement toThe Independent there is no merit to the claims in the lawsuit. “818 does not believe there is any merit to these claims,” they said. “We cannot otherwise comment on the matter.”

In a statement to indy100 Tequila 512 CEO Nick Matzorkis said: "Any reasonable-minded person can see the obvious likeness between our Tequila 512 blanco bottle that initially hit the market in 2016 and the 818 Tequila blanco bottle released in 2021 as seen at the top of our complaint filed in federal court. But beyond just that self-evident visual and the voluminous documented instances of confusion the likeness has since created in the marketplace, we will objectively and factually prove in a court of law how this unfolded and how this blatant Tequila 512 brand identity rip-off scheme came to be."

It's not the first time Jenner has been criticised over her 818 Tequila brand.

Back in May 2021 before launching her product, Jenner was accused of cultural appropriation for her ad campaign which featured the model in an agave field in Mexico on horseback.

After this backlash, Jenner announced her brand would give back to the community in Jalisco where the 818 Tequila is made.by donating sustainable bricks for "people that need homes,” which are made from agave waste, agave fibres, and water waste.

“At our distillery, which I was just at the other day, we found a way to take the agave waste — the agave fibers and the water waste — and build this sustainable brick that we are actually donating back to the community of Jalisco," the 25-year-old explained during her appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon last September.

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