After a five-and-a-half year legal battle,
the United States Patent and Trademark Office has issued a trademark for Yolo Rum. Yolo
Rum has been awarded a trademark by the United States Patent and Trademark
Office. The trademark request was
first filed in December 2012. At the same time, a number of other companies
also filed for an intent to use the Yolo trademark. Philip Guerin, founder of Yolo Rum, said:
“All these applicants created a real ‘log jam’ for our trademark. “I wish they all had just Googled, Yolo Rum,
back then. It could have really prevented wasted resources and time.”
The Denver-based rum brand is made using
aged rums from Panama, which are blended by rum master Don Pancho Fernandez. Yolo Rum also announced this week that it
plans to become the first “democracy-powered” spirit brand. The rum brand has turned to crowdfunding and
is inviting the public to invest through online platform Wefunder to help build
the company. Guerin added: “We have an
amazing team and adding hundreds of brand advocates that are vested through
ownership is the definition of ‘democracy-powered.'” The brand hopes the crowdfunding campaign
will raise at least US$125,000 to fund expansion and marketing drives.
