Local company agrees it ‘stole’ Pepsi’s Sting

PEPSI, the internationally acclaimed soft drink company, put in an appearance in the San Fernando High Court on Wednesday morning and challenged a local company’s claim to its trademark energy drink Sting.

The case came up for hearing before Justice Frank Seepersad and it was agreed that Pepsi Co is the undisputed owner of Sting, vested with intellectual property rights and registered internationally. The judge called upon local company Koyash Enterprises to reconsider its claim to Pepsi’s ownership so that the court can order cancellation of their local registration of Sting.

Last year, Koyash sued M.K Wholesalers Ltd of San Juan claiming that it (Koyash) first imported the product from Malaysia and registered the product.

Koyash, in suing M.K, contended that it became aware in 2016 that a new product, with the label pasted over Vietnamese text, was being passed off as Sting energy drink and that M.K had imported it.

But when the case was called on Wednesday, attorney Colin Kangaloo, representing Pepsi Co, submitted that the company was seeking to join M.K as second defendant and be allowed to file a defence because the latter company is in fact the worldwide owner of Sting. Attorney Odai Ramischand represented M.K.

After submissions from Koyash’s attorneys and replies from Kangaloo and Ramischand, Seepersad said the parties have agreed there could be no dispute that Pepsi Co has a World Trade Organisation trademark which is vested with international property rights for Sting. “In the absence of Pepsi Co granting a sole distributor’s licence to a party in this jurisdiction, any distributor would be free to import the product. The claimant’s (Koyash) claim appears untenable.”

Seepersad said once there is no contest as to the legitimacy of Pepsi Co’s proprietary rights, then the court would order that the local Sting trademark, registered by Koyash, be struck out.

The matter was adjourned to May 17.