A California district court judge has refused to block a competing supplements brand from launching an energy drink with the word “Gorilla” in its name, dealing a blow to supplements and beverage maker Gorilla Mind in its trademark battle against Gorilla Drinks Ltd.
According to the ruling, filed Wednesday, the court determined that Gorilla Mind has not “adequately shown, at this stage, a serious question regarding the likelihood of success on the merits” in its lawsuit against Gorilla Drinks.
The trademark dispute was initially filed in March, as Gorilla Mind – which launched in 2017 as a supplements brand – sued Gorilla Drinks over its attempts to launch a competing RTD energy brand. Although Gorilla Drinks has been operating in some form and using the brand name Gorilla since at least 2010, Gorilla Mind insists it has the right to the name in the energy category.
But Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong argued that Gorilla Mind only has protected ownership interest over its Gorilla trademark when it comes to supplements, and that Gorilla Drinks has had a pending registration for the term “Gorilla” as a word mark since 2020.
Gorilla Mind, meanwhile, has filed for several similar trademarks including Gorilla Mind Respawn, Gorilla Mind Energy Matrix and Gorilla Hydration, the latter of which was rejected by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office due its similarity to Gorilla Drinks’ ownership of the mark “Gorilla Ultimate.”
“[The] Gorilla Mind Marks are notably not registered in connection with energy drinks but rather with dietary supplements,” the judge wrote in the ruling. “At most, there are two pending registrations for marks in use with energy drinks. Thus, Plaintiffs’ actual registrations have not provided prima facie evidence of their exclusive right to use any mark in connection with energy drinks.”
Gorilla Mind first launched its RTD energy drink line in 2023, while Gorilla Drinks only began working on its RTD line in 2024, leading the former to believe it has a right to the “Gorilla” name in the energy drink market.
There is some understandable confusion in the case; Gorilla Drinks has a complex corporate history and was formally registered in its current version in 2023, but it had previously operated as Premier Beverages P.B. Limited years before Gorilla Mind was founded.
However, Judge Frimpong determined that Gorilla Mind had not done enough to prove its mark is strong enough when it comes to energy drinks to warrant a legitimate likelihood of confusion in the market, in part because the energy line itself has yet to establish itself as a significant competitor within the U.S. market.
“[The] Court finds that although it appears the mark is conceptually strong, Plaintiffs have not shown the commercial strength of the mark with regards to supplements, and thus does not find this factor supports likelihood of confusion,” Frimpong wrote.