Jake Paul may have just defeated former heavyweight champ Mike Tyson, but his brother Logan’s battle with a different sports icon is just getting started.
Logan Paul and KSI’s Prime Hydration is hitting back at Mark Anthony Brands’ Más+ by Messi, a sports drink developed in collaboration with soccer legend Lionel Messi, claiming that visual similarities between the brands is creating consumer confusion.
The legal filing is in response to a lawsuit from Mark Anthony Brands, best known as the maker of White Claw, which alleged that Prime had threatened legal action against the business and wanted a court declaration that Más+ was not infringing Prime’s trademarks.
In the document, Prime alleged it sent two cease-and-desist letters to Mark Anthony Brands this summer requesting that Mas+ be rebranded as it began to roll out to stores, to no avail. The suit cites social media posts showing that consumers are seeing “obvious” similarities between the brands due to their similar bottle shape and saturated color palettes. It also extends beyond the package, with Prime alleging the tagline used by Mas+ (“Replenish Refresh Revive”) is a knock-off of its own “Replenish Refresh Revive.”
Further complicating the matter, Prime has been actively seeking out partnership deals with Europe’s elite clubs – including Messi’s own “alma mater” FC Barcelona, as the filing puts it – which it argued could increase the chances of confusion. Paul’s brand has also aligned with teams like Juventus, Arsenal and Bayern Munich.
As on the field, Messi is a target: the suit names the reigning World Cup champion due to his professed close involvement in designing and creating the Mas brand and its flagship drink.
Mark Anthony Brands is standing by its design choices. A lawyer for the company told Law360 that Prime’s allegations were baseless and that it wanted to “put an end to Prime Hydration’s anticompetitive threats.”
It’s just the latest legal drama for Congo Brands and Prime, which has tangled in court with Refresco Beverages and the Olympic Committee over the past 12 months.