PEI Licensing, owner of the Original Penguin clothing brand, has filed a federal lawsuit in Florida accusing the NFT project Pudgy Penguins of trademark infringement, dilution and unfair competition tied to apparel and related goods. The complaint claims Pudgy Penguins is using a family of penguin marks that are confusingly similar to PEI’s federally registered PENGUIN word mark and penguin design marks. PEI says it first used a penguin design on clothing as early as 1956 and the PENGUIN word mark at least by 1967. According to the filing, PEI sent a cease-and-desist letter to Pudgy Penguins in October 2023, asserting the NFT project’s products infringe and dilute PEI’s famous marks and asking Pudgy Penguins to abandon pending trademark applications with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The suit asks the court to block the USPTO from granting Pudgy Penguins’ applications, to enjoin further alleged infringing uses, to require destruction of products likely to cause confusion, and to recover profits from sales of such items. Pudgy Penguins’ head of legal, Jennifer McGlone, told Cointelegraph the company was surprised by the lawsuit and that both parties had been engaged in productive talks to try to resolve the dispute privately. McGlone said Pudgy Penguins has advanced trademark applications before the USPTO, is confident the claims lack merit, and believes its marks are visually distinct and aimed at different audiences and markets than Original Penguin. She also noted Pudgy Penguins has already received multiple USPTO approvals covering its brand and related marks. The Pudgy Penguins X account posted a meme suggesting the two brands do not resemble one another.
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