The latest "Yellowstone" legal drama centers on coffee.
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Per a November report by San Angelo Live, "Yellowstone" creator Taylor Sheridan's Bosque Ranch has filed a lawsuit against series star Cole Hauser's Free Reign Coffee Company.
Hauser co-founded the Free Reign Coffee Company earlier this year with Karl Pfluger, Aron Marquez and Paul Anderson. They've partnered with San Angelo, Texas' Decker family to roll out a line of coffee that's inspired by cowboys as tough and resilient as Hauser's Rip Wheeler character. Per its website, Free Reign set out to craft a product that "embodied the dreamer's mindset and callused hands of those cowboys [Hauser] admired."
Free Reign was known as Longhorn Coffee before being acquired last year by Hauser and his partners, San Angelo Live adds.
Within a month of Free Reign's debut, Bosque Ranch filed a trademark infringement lawsuit, citing unfair competition and false advertising.
San Angelo Live reports that "the complaint alleges that the defendants used a brand mark strikingly similar to Bosque Ranch's registered trademark, potentially misleading consumers."
Free Reign uses an interlocking "FR" logo, while Bosque Ranch has used an interlocking "BR" logo since 2004. Bosque Ranch obtained federal registrations for its branding in 2020.
In addition, Bosque Ranch has sold coffee since June which is marketed as reflecting a cowboy lifestyle.
"The Cowboy way of life doesn't wait for the snow to melt or the rain to break. It starts before dawn and ends after dark," reads the Bosque Ranch website. "But the one thing as essential to the Cowboy as his boots and saddle is coffee. It is our fuel."
Per San Angelo Live, Bosque Ranch is seeking "permanent injunctive relief, damages and profits from the defendants under the Lanham Act and Texas law."
