Fizz, a social networking app created for the Gen Z experience, has responded. They’re suing Instacart and Partiful for trademark infringement regarding their trademark rights in relation to the newly launched “Fizz App.” Founded in 2020, Fizz has quickly become a category-defining must-have platform on more than 400 college campuses. The illustration that Instacart and Partiful are benefiting from its goodwill. They argue that this provides a huge unfair advantage to these competitors in the event planning industry.
Fizz sued Instacart and Partiful when the two companies created a new app. The lawsuit maintains that these companies have infringed and diluted Fizz’s trademark rights. Fizz has very actively used the “FIZZ” trademark since January 2022 and applied to register it in December 2021. Fizz is suing both companies and that’s exactly what she’s doing. Specifically, they allege them for common law trademark infringement, federal trademark infringement, cybersquatting, and violations of California’s UCL.
Fizz asserted that, “This new Fizz App by Instacart and Partiful is a blatant attempt to misappropriate the goodwill that Plaintiff has painstakingly developed through its continuous use of the FIZZ Marks among the Gen-Z demographic.”
The lawsuit alleges that Instacart acted in bad faith to cash in on popularity of Plaintiff’s “FIZZ” trademark. It claims that Instacart originally acquired the domain name <FIZZ.COM> with this purpose in mind.
The competitive nature of the market is highlighted in Fizz’s claims, which emphasize that “together, Instacart and Partiful are competing head-on with Plaintiff in its core market of event planning for the Gen-Z demographic.” The company’s point seems to be that these new competitors should have named their new company anything but that. Instead, they went with “FIZZ,” which dilutes Fizz’s distinct character.
Aisha Malik is a consumer news reporter at TechCrunch. She’s reported on this emerging story since coming to the publication in 2021. Malik went on to earn an honors bachelor’s degree from the University of Toronto. She also has a master’s degree in journalism from Western University. Prior to coming on board at TechCrunch, she covered the Canadian telecommunications sector for MobileSyrup. Additionally, Malik is a contributor at TechCrunch covering the intersection of technology and consumer affairs.
This lawsuit comes on the heels of Fizz’s own suit against competitor Sidechat in early 2023, alleging similar acts of unfair competition. Continued litigation illustrates the difficult realities that new tech firms face. They’re increasingly unable to protect their intellectual property and brand identity in an increasingly competitive market.