By Blake Brittain
WASHINGTON, June 29 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on Monday to hear a bid by canned-coffee maker Rise Brewing to hold PepsiCo liable for alleged trademark infringement concerning Pepsi's morning energy drink "Mtn Dew Rise."
The justices took up Rise's appeal of a lower court's ruling rejecting the company's claim that the product name "Mtn Dew Rise" infringes its trademarks and creates customer confusion with its coffee brand.
The Supreme Court is expected to hear the case
during its next term, which begins in October.
Pepsi launched Mtn Dew Rise, a fruit-flavored energy drink marketed to morning drinkers, in 2021. Stamford, Connecticut-based Rise sued Pepsi later that year, alleging trademark infringement.
Rise sought an unspecified amount of monetary damages and a court order blocking Pepsi from using the "Rise" name. It argued that Pepsi, which also distributes Starbucks coffee drinks, was trying to "destroy a leading competitor" by flooding the market with a similarly named product.
Manhattan-based U.S. District Judge Lorna Schofield granted Rise's request to temporarily block Pepsi's use of the "Mtn Dew Rise" name, citing evidence that it posed an "existential threat" to Rise's business.
Pepsi renamed its drink "Mtn Dew Energy" after the ruling before discontinuing it altogether in 2024.
The Manhattan-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Schofield's order in 2022. Pepsi convinced Schofield to throw out the case in 2023 in light of the appeals court's decision.
The judge said Rise's trademark rights were weak because of the "strong logical associations between 'Rise' and coffee," and agreed with the 2nd Circuit's finding that the differences in the drinks' branding were "far more notable than the similarities." The 2nd Circuit affirmed that ruling in 2024.
Rise told the Supreme Court in a filing that the strength of its trademarks was a factual question that should not have been decided by a judge, and that other federal appeals courts that have considered the issue have left that matter to juries to decide.
Pepsi responded in a filing that the case was a "run-of-the-mill trademark dispute," and that Rise's argument implicated no split among federal appeals courts and "lacks sufficient importance" to warrant Supreme Court intervention.
President Donald Trump's administration urged the Supreme Court not to hear Rise's appeal.
(Reporting by Blake Brittain; Editing by Will Dunham)
