{"id":139362,"date":"2025-12-19T07:54:53","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T15:54:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/12\/19\/the-koozie-people-bullied-a-wooden-drink-sleeve-product-woodzie-into-a-name-change\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T07:54:53","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T15:54:53","slug":"the-koozie-people-bullied-a-wooden-drink-sleeve-product-woodzie-into-a-name-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/12\/19\/the-koozie-people-bullied-a-wooden-drink-sleeve-product-woodzie-into-a-name-change\/","title":{"rendered":"The \u2018Koozie\u2019 People Bullied A Wooden Drink Sleeve Product, \u2018Woodzie\u2019, Into A Name Change"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve said it roughly a zillion times:\u00a0trademark bullying<\/a>\u00a0exists because it works. One of the unfortunate inequities of our system is that having a large legal warchest simply allows someone to push around others over trademark \u201cconcerns\u201d that aren\u2019t valid. The formula for this is consistent. Large corporate interest with lawyers at the ready will police the country for any uses of a term in any way close to the corporation\u2019s trademark, and C&D its victim into making a change, which itself only happens because the victim can\u2019t afford to fight back. It sucks, but it\u2019s reality.<\/p>\n

But I\u2019ll admit I didn\u2019t expect the koozie people\u00a0to have such a dirth of chill<\/a>\u00a0over this sort of thing. The Koozie Group is the company that holds the trademark for the word \u201ckoozie\u201d, which I didn\u2019t even know was a registered mark. I personally have always used the term generically to refer to a drink sleeve. Better Wheel Workshops makes drink sleeves out of wood and named its product \u201cthe woodzie\u201d.<\/p>\n

\n

Better Wheel Workshops in Newfane produces wood can insulators previously known as \u201cThe Woodzie.\u201d The husband and wife team made them for about a decade until the Koozie Group filed a petition to cancel the trademark.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

The Chevaliers said they were informed about a year-and-a-half ago that Koozie Group, a large corporation based in Clearwater, Fla. that owns the trademark phrase \u201cKoozie,\u201d filed a petition with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to cancel \u201cThe Woodzie\u201d trademark due to potential confusion.<\/em><\/p>\n

Now, the couple is tentatively changing the name of the product to \u201cTree Sleeve.\u201d The website,\u00a0betterwheelvt.com<\/a>, will stay and any mention of \u201cThe Woodzie\u201d will be removed.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have until the end of the year for the full switchover,\u201d Jeff said. \u201cWe\u2019re notifying all wholesale partners of the change in the name and rebranding products in house.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Now, there are a lot of other companies out there that are using the term \u201ckoozie\u201d that have nothing to do with The Koozie Group. You can do a simple Google shopping search and find them. I would also argue that \u201cThe Woodsie\u201d is a name and product type that is transformative enough that I have a hard time believing any real public confusion of association is likely. At a minimum, this sounds to me like a fight worth fighting, all else being equal.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s the point: all else is\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0equal. Specifically, the ability to fight the fight monetarily is not equal.<\/p>\n

\n

Jeff said the dispute cost his family \u201ca little in legal fees.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cAnd by a little bit, I mean quite a lot actually, but it is what it is,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s the cost of doing business.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Jeff said \u201cThe Woodzie\u201d was trademarked in 2019 after being in use since 2015. The dispute with the Koozie Group began about a year-and-a-half ago.\u00a0 The family is working with a trademark attorney on the new name.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want to go through the same thing all over again,\u201d Jeff said, \u201cso we\u2019re really trying to scrub the world and make sure we\u2019re not stepping on any toes.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s just too bad we don\u2019t have a better mechanism for the little guy to fight back on this sort of thing. I remain convinced that \u201ckoozie\u201d and \u201cwoodzie\u201d are distinct enough to prevent customer confusion. While \u201ckoozie\u201d is somewhat creative and fanciful, it ultimately derives from \u201ctea cozy\u201d in Britain, making the leap to \u201cwoodzie\u201d a trademark issue largely over the letters \u201ci\u201d and \u201ce\u201d.<\/p>\n

Given that and the lack of policing of the mark elsewhere, this strikes me as a fight that The Koozie Group didn\u2019t have to start. But it did and, because trademark bullying works, a smaller company did the math and found that caving was cheaper than fighting.<\/p>\n

The \u2018Koozie\u2019 People Bullied A Wooden Drink Sleeve Product, \u2018Woodzie\u2019, Into A Name Change<\/a><\/p>\n

More Law-Related Stories From Techdirt:<\/strong><\/p>\n

TikTok Deal Done And It\u2019s Somehow The Shittiest Possible Outcome, Making Everything Worse<\/a>
Thousands Tell The Patent Office: Don\u2019t Hide Bad Patents From Review<\/a>
FCC Boss Brendan Carr Showcases How He\u2019s A Shameless Liar And Opportunist In Testimony Before Congress<\/a><\/p>\n

The post The \u2018Koozie\u2019 People Bullied A Wooden Drink Sleeve Product, \u2018Woodzie\u2019, Into A Name Change<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve said it roughly a zillion times:\u00a0trademark bullying<\/a>\u00a0exists because it works. One of the unfortunate inequities of our system is that having a large legal warchest simply allows someone to push around others over trademark \u201cconcerns\u201d that aren\u2019t valid. The formula for this is consistent. Large corporate interest with lawyers at the ready will police the country for any uses of a term in any way close to the corporation\u2019s trademark, and C&D its victim into making a change, which itself only happens because the victim can\u2019t afford to fight back. It sucks, but it\u2019s reality.<\/p>\n

But I\u2019ll admit I didn\u2019t expect the koozie people\u00a0to have such a dirth of chill<\/a>\u00a0over this sort of thing. The Koozie Group is the company that holds the trademark for the word \u201ckoozie\u201d, which I didn\u2019t even know was a registered mark. I personally have always used the term generically to refer to a drink sleeve. Better Wheel Workshops makes drink sleeves out of wood and named its product \u201cthe woodzie\u201d.<\/p>\n

\n

Better Wheel Workshops in Newfane produces wood can insulators previously known as \u201cThe Woodzie.\u201d The husband and wife team made them for about a decade until the Koozie Group filed a petition to cancel the trademark.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

The Chevaliers said they were informed about a year-and-a-half ago that Koozie Group, a large corporation based in Clearwater, Fla. that owns the trademark phrase \u201cKoozie,\u201d filed a petition with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to cancel \u201cThe Woodzie\u201d trademark due to potential confusion.<\/em><\/p>\n

Now, the couple is tentatively changing the name of the product to \u201cTree Sleeve.\u201d The website,\u00a0betterwheelvt.com<\/a>, will stay and any mention of \u201cThe Woodzie\u201d will be removed.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have until the end of the year for the full switchover,\u201d Jeff said. \u201cWe\u2019re notifying all wholesale partners of the change in the name and rebranding products in house.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Now, there are a lot of other companies out there that are using the term \u201ckoozie\u201d that have nothing to do with The Koozie Group. You can do a simple Google shopping search and find them. I would also argue that \u201cThe Woodsie\u201d is a name and product type that is transformative enough that I have a hard time believing any real public confusion of association is likely. At a minimum, this sounds to me like a fight worth fighting, all else being equal.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s the point: all else is\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0equal. Specifically, the ability to fight the fight monetarily is not equal.<\/p>\n

\n

Jeff said the dispute cost his family \u201ca little in legal fees.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cAnd by a little bit, I mean quite a lot actually, but it is what it is,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s the cost of doing business.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Jeff said \u201cThe Woodzie\u201d was trademarked in 2019 after being in use since 2015. The dispute with the Koozie Group began about a year-and-a-half ago.\u00a0 The family is working with a trademark attorney on the new name.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want to go through the same thing all over again,\u201d Jeff said, \u201cso we\u2019re really trying to scrub the world and make sure we\u2019re not stepping on any toes.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s just too bad we don\u2019t have a better mechanism for the little guy to fight back on this sort of thing. I remain convinced that \u201ckoozie\u201d and \u201cwoodzie\u201d are distinct enough to prevent customer confusion. While \u201ckoozie\u201d is somewhat creative and fanciful, it ultimately derives from \u201ctea cozy\u201d in Britain, making the leap to \u201cwoodzie\u201d a trademark issue largely over the letters \u201ci\u201d and \u201ce\u201d.<\/p>\n

Given that and the lack of policing of the mark elsewhere, this strikes me as a fight that The Koozie Group didn\u2019t have to start. But it did and, because trademark bullying works, a smaller company did the math and found that caving was cheaper than fighting.<\/p>\n

The \u2018Koozie\u2019 People Bullied A Wooden Drink Sleeve Product, \u2018Woodzie\u2019, Into A Name Change<\/a><\/p>\n

More Law-Related Stories From Techdirt:<\/strong><\/p>\n

TikTok Deal Done And It\u2019s Somehow The Shittiest Possible Outcome, Making Everything Worse<\/a>
Thousands Tell The Patent Office: Don\u2019t Hide Bad Patents From Review<\/a>
FCC Boss Brendan Carr Showcases How He\u2019s A Shameless Liar And Opportunist In Testimony Before Congress<\/a><\/p>\n

The post The \u2018Koozie\u2019 People Bullied A Wooden Drink Sleeve Product, \u2018Woodzie\u2019, Into A Name Change<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve said it roughly a zillion times:\u00a0trademark bullying\u00a0exists because it works. One of the unfortunate inequities of our system is that having a large legal warchest simply allows someone to push around others over trademark \u201cconcerns\u201d that aren\u2019t valid. The formula for this is consistent. Large corporate interest with lawyers at the ready will police […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-139362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139362\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}