Amid reports that YouTube personality MrBeast, real name Jimmy Donaldson, is embroiled in a legal battle over his agreement to lend his likeness to food delivery app burgers, is facing another legal action, this one over the use of the product name “Deez Nutz” by his candy brand Feastables. It turns out that someone else had the idea to market a line of snacking nuts with a similar phrase.
It’s “Dee’s Nuts,” a flavored peanut brand founded by Brian Ditore over ten years ago. Now, Business Insider has the report that Ditore is filing suit against Feastables over their “Deez Nutz” product, alleging it’s too similar to his own “Dee’s Nuts” product, named after his grandmother. The suit states:
“[Ditore’s grandmother’s] laughter and belief that life should not be taken too seriously inspired Brian A. Ditore to select a trademark that paid homage to her and her comedic flair, hence DEE’S NUTS was created.”
The lawsuit complains that “Deez Nutz” and “Dee’s Nuts” are “confusingly similar and phonetically equivalent,” not to mention based on the same joke. It asks for a jury trial and an immediate and permanent injunction keeping MrBeast’s company from using the “Deez Nutz” name.
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Ditore says he trademarked “Dee’s Nuts” back in 2012, only to find in February of this year that Feastables had been using their own disturbingly similar product name. A cease-and-desist letter sent to the company by Ditore’s attorneys was unheeded, and according to his lawsuit it’s caused “irreparable harm” to his brand by confusing consumers.
Dee’s Nuts is currently available in 34 states by way of more than 10o wholesale distributors, but it’s a much smaller concern that anything MrBeast is involved with. The suit says that the company “has neither the online reach nor the resources necessary to counter the confusion being wrought by Defendant Feastables, Inc. and James Stephen Donaldson in their use of the DEEZ NUTZ mark.”
Now, a judge will decide the fate of Deez Nutz.
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