The lawsuit was filed in March 2023 by Fertitta’s Landry’s LLC, alleging that the whiskey company had infringed on the Landry name despite receiving a cease-and-desist letter and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s 2022 denials of three trademark applications from Landry Distilling.
A significant portion of the trial was devoted to the testimony of Zach Landry, who told the jury that he started his business with a good faith belief that the name “Landry” was available for use in the whiskey industry. He said that at the time, he only knew of the name “Landry” in connection with the restaurant chain Landry’s Seafood House.
Fertitta’s counsel, however, pointed the jury to internal documents from Landry Distilling, which detailed plans for a crowdfunding campaign to raise money for its defense in the trademark case. The documents referred to Landry Distilling as a “dark horse” and described the company as a “David” up against a “Goliath.”
Zach Landry, however, testified that the campaign never launched and that the documents presented to the jury were never made public. His attorney, Joseph R. Knight of Ewell Brown Blanke & Knight LLP, argued during closing statements that the plaintiff’s “nasty” tactics—such as calling Zach Landry “Pinocchio” and disparaging his business as a “bathtub operation”—were a sign that the large corporation lacked the legal and factual basis for its claims.
