Big tobacco company ITG, the maker of Kool-brand cigarettes, is suing cannabis company Capna Intellectual over alleged logo infringement and violations of trademark law.
Capna, who does business as Bloom Brands, is accused of stealing the big tobacco company’s brand logo according to a Law360 report.
“In a transparent rip-off of ITG’s Kool marks, defendant advertises, promotes, distributes, imports, sells and/or offers for sale electronic cigarettes and oral vaporizers for adult smokers and adult tobacco consumers under the Bloom marks.
The Bloom Marks contain interlocking ‘OOs’ which mimic the interlocking ‘OOs’ in ITG’s famous Kool marks.” read ITG’s court filings via Law360.
According to ITG, Bloom filed a trademark application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in September 2019 seeking to register the similar mark for e-cigarette and vape sales.
ITG said that Bloom’s acts deliberate “and intentionally carried out in bad faith, or with reckless disregard for or with willful blindness to ITG’s rights in the Kool marks, for the purpose of trading on ITG’s reputation and diluting the Kool marks.”
The ITG Brands LLC v. Capna Intellectual case was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
