Giant Australian wine brand Yellow Tail has has entered into a trademark battle with a US wine company over its wallaby logo.
Family-owned Casella Wines, which produces Yellow Tail, has launched legal action to stop The Wine Group from using a kangaroo on the label of its brand ‘Little Roo‘.
Casella Wines argues that American consumers will not be able to distinguish the difference between the two marsupial icons, which are both ‘oriented the same direction’ on the label.
‘It’s hard enough for consumers to make choices, let alone to be confused when they go into a store with a particular wine in mind,’ says John Casella, managing director of Casella Wine.’
The Wine Group disagrees, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal, and ‘denies that the Australian wallaby is interchangeably referred to as a kangaroo’.
Kate Bradley, communications manager at Casella Wines, told Decanter.com they ‘hope to resolve [the matter] by mutual agreement.’
‘Casella Wines has felt it necessary to take steps to protect its iconic wallaby logo in the US.’
Yellow Tail is the top-selling imported wine in the US. It represents 8% of Australia’s total wine production and 15% of the country’s wine exports.
According to australiazoo.com.au: ‘The easiest way to tell the difference between kangaroos and wallabies is by size; adult kangaroos are much taller than adult wallabies’
Written by Hazel Macrae
