Australian wine giant Casella Wines, which owns Australia’s leading wine export brand Yellow Tail, is locked in a trademark fight with US wine group over the distinctive wallaby logo that adorns its bottles.
Casella has launched legal action in a New York court to try and stop US company The Wine Group from using a kangaroo on the label of its brand called Little Roo.
Casella Wines says wallaby and kangaroo icons, which are both orientated the same way on the label, are indistinguishable to US consumers.
And not just consumers – Casella Wines managing director John Casella told SmartCompany this morning that he didn’t even know the precise difference between a kangaroo and a wallaby, which he says underlines why consumers are having trouble.
“Of course there is piggy backing on our brand,” Casella says.
“This is not just about protecting our brand. We are trying to do the right thing by our customers. There is no reason for them to be confused.”
According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, The Wine Group said in a court filing in December that it “denies that the Australian wallaby is interchangeably referred to as a kangaroo”.
However, Casella is dismissing any suggestions from The Wine Group that the use of the similar marsupials is accidental.
“How can you accidently look like someone else?” he says.
“There are probably three or four thousand Australian animals out there and they had to pick the kangaroo.”
Casella says the company now plans to conduct some market surveys to judge the level of customer confusion in the North American market.
He says trading conditions in the US, where Yellow Tail is the top selling imported wine label, remain difficult, although he says Casella Wines is faring better than a lot of other Australian exporters.
“It certainly highlights the value of having that brand equity.”
He says he still hopes to solve the trademark problem through discussions with The Wine Group.
“At the end of the day nobody wants a fight. The wine industry has enough problems without having to deal with this sort of stuff.”
But Casella also argues any brand piggybacking won’t work long-term.
“You can build sales that way, but you cannot build brands.”
James was the editor and publisher of SmartCompany and LeadingCompany for five years. He is now the Australian Financial Review‘s companies & markets editor, and a former BRW editor.
