Pedro Pascal It is one of the relevant figures currently in Hollywood, recently its name accompanied large series and film productions. However, the use of a loudness similar to its last name on the label of a bottle of liquor unleashed an unexpected demand.
At the end of 2022, Chilean merchant David Herrera decided to create a Pisco brand that baptized under the name Pedro Piscal. He carried out the corresponding procedures at the Intellectual Property Institute (INAPI) and in June 2023 the brand registration was authorized and published by the Official Gazette, without opposition.
Two months later, in August, Herrera officially became the owner of the name and began selling the product In alliance with the ABA Pisco, located about 500 kilometers from Santiago. Soon, the Narcos star decided to sue the entrepreneur in Chile – his homeland – and force him to stop using the brand.
Pedro Piscal was released last year as an exclusive product and currently each 750ml bottle is priced at US $ 13,18. “Discover excellence in each sip with Pedro Piscal, a Pisco Premium elaborated exclusively with Moscatel grapes of Alexandria cultivated in height in the picturesque Elqui Valley, Chile,” says entrepreneurship on its website.
The unusual legal battle between Pedro Pascal and Pedro Piscal
The creators of the distillate ensure that their brand should not cause any confusion and that there is no legal cause for entrepreneurship to function or change their name. “No one goes to a bar and asks for a Pisco Pedro Piscal waiting for the actor to arrive. And vice versa, if someone sees a movie or a series with this actor, no one could wait for a pisco to appear,” he exemplified before the Chilean press the lawyer who defends the Herrera brand.
In statements to the Portal El País, Ángel Labra, Herrera’s lawyer, said that the origin of the name was in good faith and that the artist did not take into account at the time of the election: “Pedro by Pedro Jiménez, the variety of grapes that is used to make the pisco and fish because it is in direct relationship with Pisco. It is a word game, but, in no case, with reference to the actor,” he emphasized in dialogue with the Spanish media. In addition, the lawyer stressed that neither on the bottle label nor on the website appears the image of the actor.
On the other hand, the lawyers of José Pedro Balmaceda PascalThe actor’s full name, argue that Pedro Piscal is a trademark “inductive to error or confusion”, since consumers could believe that whoever is behind is the artist as owner or promoter.
Pascal’s defense, headed by Juan Pablo Silva, stressed that the Pedro Piscal brand “It is quasi identical in graphic and phonetic terms and acted in clear contravention of the general principle of good faith.”. According to the actor’s lawyers, Herrera hid a clear interest in commercial use when registering the brand under that name. Silva told El País that Pedro Piscal is a brand that “can be harmful” for the image of Pedro Pascal, since the artist is the visible face of advertisements of other alcoholic beverages and that must be eliminated.
It is relevant to emphasize that the office that represents Herrera has a great expertise in this type of cases: it is the same firm that won the trial of Starwasha car wash brand that managed to maintain its name after a demand by Lucas Film, and that of the Chilean comedian Christian Henríquez, who faced in 2024 the representatives of Michael Jackson for the use of the name of one of his characters, Maikel Pérez Jackson, who finally managed to register.
At the moment, the case of Pascal is only in the first instance and Its resolution could take up to two years.
Source: Ambito
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
