Law360 (April 2, 2024, 11:07 PM EDT) -- A California-based bong maker says a Texas company used its registered trademarks on phony water pipes, telling a federal court Monday that the counterfeit marks leave customers confused and are causing the brand's reputation to go up in smoke.
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GS Holistic LLC says that Muni Investment, which does business as Tic Tok 4, sold products with its Stündenglass marks on them. GS Holistic says it has carefully built the reputation for its Stündenglass products, and Tic Tok 4 threatens to undermine the brand's credibility.
The amended complaint, filed Monday but entered Tuesday, also names Tic Tok 4 owner Saad Al-Bayati. GS Holistic initially filed the lawsuit last year, but filed the amended complaint Monday naming a new defendant.
"In essence, the defendants mislead consumers by selling in their stores low grade products that free ride on the goodwill of the Stündenglass brand, and in turn, the defendants reap substantial ill-begotten profits," the company said in its amended complaint.
The products in question are so-called glass gravity infusers. A Stündenglass glass infuser has a retail price of almost $600 and there are about 3,000 stores authorized to sell the products in the U.S., including in Texas.
GS Holistic has spent significant time and money to develop customer recognition for the brand, the company says, and worked to build significant goodwill. The company says that counterfeit products have become prolific, and it has to police unauthorized uses of the marks nationwide.
The company claims that in an ongoing investigation into the sale of counterfeit products, Tic Tok 4 sold an investigator for GS Holistic a glass infuser with the Stündenglass marks. Al-Bayati has direct involvement in the sale of the products at Tic Tok 4, according to GS Holistic.
