Bad Bunny accuses brewery of illegally using his images and trademark

Rapper Bad Bunny is accusing a South Florida trade brewer of atrocious behavior.

The fashionable Puerto Rican rapper, singer, songwriter, histrion and shaper says Hialeah-based Unbranded Brewing Company is illegally utilizing his name, representation and likeness to marketplace 1 of its brews.

In a suit filed Monday successful U.S. District Court successful Miami, Bad Bunny, whose existent sanction is Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio, said the institution named 1 of its brew products San Benito — the trademark that Ocasio uses to supply shaper services.

The brew can’s plan portrays a antheral resembling Ocasio surrounded by imagery “well known by Ocasio’s instrumentality basal arsenic intimately associated with Ocasio,” including a bunny and “third eye” symbol, the suit states.

On Tuesday, the brewery’s founder, Zachary Swanson, acknowledged that the representation connected the brew tin resembles Ocasio and said income of the San Benito marque has been stopped until a caller plan tin beryllium developed.

“So fundamentally we person a quality that looks akin to him,” said Swanson successful an interview. “We’ve agreed to halt utilizing the iconography oregon imagery that looks thing similar Bad Bunny.”

However, Swanson said the institution volition proceed to usage the sanction San Benito due to the fact that Ocasio has not trademarked the sanction successful relation with alcoholic beverage sales. The word refers to St. Benedict and the brew brewing contented of the Benedictine monks, Swanson said.

Ocasio’s attorney, Karen Stetson of the instrumentality steadfast Gray Robinson, P.A., did not instantly respond to a petition to sermon the lawsuit.

Unbranded Brewing Company’s website continued connected Tuesday to show images targeted successful the suit, which were besides sold by the brewery connected t-shirts and stickers.

Swanson said the San Benito marque was sold astatine its Hialeah taproom and successful retail stores crossed Florida, including Whole Foods and Total Wine & More. The institution had intended San Benito to assistance it interruption into the Puerto Rico market, wherever Ocasio roseate to fame, Swanson said.

The brewery “never sought oregon obtained support to utilize Ocasio’s name, trademark oregon representation for immoderate purpose,” the suit states, adding, “Moreover, [the company] ne'er responded to [Ocasio’s] cease and desist letter.”

Swanson said his squad decided to halt selling beers with Ocasio’s imagery aft the suit was filed connected Monday. But it’s not existent that the institution “never responded” to the cease and desist missive sent a fewer weeks ago, helium said.

“I asked our trademark lawyer to respond and accidental that we needed a mates of weeks to sermon it in-house,” helium said. “I don’t cognize wherefore they’re claiming they did not person that.”

According to Allmusic.com, a website chronicling the past of fashionable music, Bad Bunny, 27, released his archetypal azygous successful 2016 and gained fame collaborating with specified artists arsenic Cardi B, Drake and Daddy Yankee.

His benignant is described arsenic a substance of reggaeton and Latin trap blended with rock, psyche and hip-hop.

With 35.8 cardinal Instagram followers, Ocasio has a immense planetary instrumentality basal and was named by Time mag arsenic 1 of the 100 astir influential radical successful the world, the suit noted. Last December, his medium “El Último Tour del Mundo” became the archetypal medium sung wholly successful Spanish to scope the apical of the Billboard Top 200.

He besides already has a brew endorsement woody with Corona Extra. Since August 2020, helium has appeared successful Corona Extra commercials by himself and alongside rapper Snoop Dogg.

Ocasio was himself accused of copyright infringement successful a suit filed successful September by BM Records. That suit claims that Ocasio, his collaborators and their concern partners failed to licence 3 samples of tracks by creator DJ Playero that appeared connected the Bad Bunny azygous “Safaera” successful 2020.