(Photo: Mezcal Amaras)
Mexican liquor producer Mezcal Amaras is duking it out in court against Topa Spirits, a Peruvian pisco maker with which it has a hotly contested battle over the brand name "logia."
According to a lawsuit filed on April 12, the two distillers are currently playing tug of war over the phrase in the Southern District of Texas. Topa Spirits — which claims to have begun using the brand name Pisco Logiá in 2014 — says that Mezcal Amaras sent it a cease-and-desist letter following the launch of a Logia-branded agave spirits line last year. In turn, Topa Spirits is now requesting a jury trial over claims of trademark infringement and monetary damages.
Topa Spirits specializes exclusively in pisco, an unaged brandy with a protected designation of origin in Peru. Mezcal Amaras, meanwhile, was founded by Santiago Suarez and Luis Niño de Rivera in Oaxaca, Mexico. The brand has rapidly gained traction in the U.S. market, recently inking a distribution deal with spirits giant Beam Suntory. Relevant to the lawsuit, its Logia Coyote expression was honored as a finalist at the 2023 San Francisco World Spirits Competition.
The brands also vary wildly in terms of pricing. While the majority of Topa Spirits' products are available in the US for around $30, Mezcal Amaras runs the gamut from $40 to upwards of US $300.
"Topa Spirits has suffered and continues to suffer irreparable harm due to the confusion, mistake, and/or deception that will be generated among the trade and the public and the resulting impairment of the value of its trademark rights, continuing loss of sales to its existing and potential clients, continuing loss of the goodwill of its clients, and violation of its trademark rights," Topa Spirits wrote in its complaint.
The Peruvian distiller also claims that Mezcal Amaras is engaging in "fake designations of origin" by using "logia" in its branding.
The term logia, derived from ancient Greek references to divine communication, is commonly used today to refer to the sayings of Jesus in New Testament scholarship. Topa Spirits, however, arguably uses the phrase in a different context; the brand name Pisco Logiá acts as an entendre of psicologiá, the Spanish word for psychology. Mezcal Amaras claims a third meaning, referring to the lodges of secret societies like the Free Masons.
[botmc-promo]
