Waugh Family Wines News Release On Six Degrees

NEWS RELEASE

 

Contact:
Ryan Waugh
Owner/Winemaker, Waugh Family Wines ryan@waughcellars.com
(707) 738-6446

 

BRONCO WINE CO. ALLEGEDLY VIOLATES TRADEMARK LAWS, DAMAGES WAUGH FAMILY BRAND

 

Napa, CA – Napa-based Waugh Family Wines has mounted a “David-like” challenge to U.S. wine “Goliath” Bronco Wine Co., having recently filed a federal lawsuit over an allegedly egregious potential trademark infringement of Waugh’s “Six Degrees” Wine brand, (founded in 2005 as a family startup) by Bronco’s virtually identical “6° Six Degrees” brand, which appears to have hit the market in 2013.

 

Ryan Waugh, the Owner and Winemaker of Waugh Family Wines (producer of the original Six Degrees Wine brand), expressed his frustration at the situation, noting long-term, irreversible damage which he believes is being done to his ultra-premium brand cabernet sauvignon, a true “cult” wine which historically retails for $150 a bottle. Bronco’s 6° Six Degrees brand, meanwhile, consists of higher-volume, lower-cost pinot noir, chardonnay and rosé varietals, retailing for $10 to $15 a bottle, potentially wreaking havoc on the value of Waugh’s own storied Six Degrees brand while allegedly creating substantial confusion in the marketplace.

 

“My wife and I are sickened by the long-term implications of Bronco’s use of the 6° Six Degrees brand, which is mass-produced and sold at pennies on the dollar compared to our ultra-premium brand,” Waugh said.

 

“Over the last decade, we’ve put everything on the line to ensure our brand’s success, and we’re watching 10 years of blood, sweat and tears unravel before our eyes. It started early last year, when we began receiving phone calls, emails and in-person requests for varietals we’ve never produced under our Six Degrees brand. A simple Google search led to the discovery of Bronco Wine Co.’s Six Degrees Cellars. Bronco’s model is like the antithesis of our brand. It undermines our ability to market a high-end specialty product and threatens the reputation and long-term vitality of our family business. We feel that Bronco Wine Co. is a wine industry institution that has always focused on high-volume/low-cost brands, a big contrast to our limited production, ultra-premium cab varietal.”

 

Waugh went on to say that “it is hard to believe that so many years after creating and perfecting our Six Degrees brand, Bronco created their Six Degrees brand without any knowledge of our operation. Waugh Family is search-engine optimized, so a simple Google search would have quickly raised a red flag. Bronco could have then investigated and either reached out to us or ceased any additional brand development. A proactive approach would have avoided further complications and reduced the compounding stress on our family business. At the onset, despite being the little guy in the global marketplace, we wanted to be proactive and Crystal [Waugh] and I reached out in an attempt to meet with them first. We hoped to avoid the lawyers by coming to a consensus from the get-go, but instead of working with us, Bronco has pushed ahead, doubling down on their product in spite of us – and in doing so it appears they’re intentionally undermining us in the market. Our product was first harvested more than a decade ago, and we have dreams of passing it on to the next generation of Waugh winemakers. That threatened legacy is clear, and is the driving factor in our quest for justice.”

 

Waugh noted several issues with Bronco’s 6° Six Degrees brand, compounding the alleged confusion in the marketplace. For example, the virtually identical marks and goods (Waugh’s label spells out “Six Degrees” whereas Bronco Wine Co. uses both the “6°” and “Six Degrees” titles); overlapping distribution and marketing channels (both producers appear sequentially in Google search results and both distribute their wines across the country); and overlapping production operations (both are rooted in the Napa Valley).

 

Perhaps most intriguing are Waugh’s allegations that Bronco is once again perpetuating misleading “Napa” labeling on its wines, for example, by designating its products as originating with “6° Six Degrees Cellars, Napa, California.” While Bronco and its related companies do possess operational facilities in Napa (as does Waugh Family Wines), Bronco’s 6° Six Degrees wine is allegedly not comprised of any Napa wine, and Waugh contends that the “Napa” designations are misleading, pointing to further representations of the Bronco 6° Six Degrees pinot noir product as a Napa Valley appellated wine in advertising, on numerous websites, restaurant wine lists, menus and the like, which Waugh included in its federal complaint.

 

Waugh has expended significant resources in efforts to resolve the dispute directly with Bronco. Waugh noted that even after reaching out and establishing his prior use of the Six Degrees trademark, the conglomerate has rebuffed requests to terminate the 6° Six Degrees brand, suspend sales or offer reasonable compensation or other corrective action for the alleged trademark infringement to Waugh Family.

 

Waugh Family is taking it in stride, with Ryan Waugh stating: “Even if this was an honest mistake by Bronco, we brought it to their attention back in June, gave them our financials and laid it all out for them to prevent any further damages to our brand, and allow us to move forward just as we’d done for the preceding seven or eight years – but despite us bringing this to their attention and asking them to remedy the situation, it’s business as usual. They [Bronco] have not stopped selling their 6° Six Degrees product. To me, the infringement is now intentional, even if it did not begin that way. If I had to guess, they will try to use their vast resources to outlast me in what amounts to a legal game of chicken. But Crystal and I know what’s right is right — we are going to achieve justice and champion the cause of the American entrepreneur against a conglomerate that apparently doesn’t care about what happens to small businesses like ours. The fruits of our labor over the last 10 years have been compromised, threatening our livelihood and ability to provide for our family. At this time, we have no option other than to look at legal proceedings to address this injustice and avoid being pushed around by larger industry counterparts.”

 

About Waugh’s Six Degrees Wine

 

The original Six Degrees Wine by Waugh Family Wines is a limited production, ultra‐premium wine brand. The brand was painstakingly developed for over 10 years by winemaker Ryan Waugh, who first planted vineyards in the Mayacamas Mountains in 2000 to harvest the first Six Degrees vintage in 2005. Ryan and his wife, Crystal Waugh, live in the Napa Valley with their sons and future Waugh winemakers.

 

To learn more about the Waugh Family and Waugh’s Six Degrees Wine, please visit www.SixDegreesWine.com.

 

###