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Deadmau5 sues vape company for trademark infringement

By Andy Malt | Published on Wednesday 6 April 2016

It’s been nearly a year since we last had a good Deadmau5 trademark lawsuit. I’m starting to get withdrawal symptoms like a smoker a week into quitting. What do you do in those situations? Find an alternative to satisfy your craving, or just dive straight back in. Which in my head was a good segue into the news that Deadmau5 is suing a vape company for trademark infringement.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the producer claims that West Coast Vape Supply is ripping him off with its Deadmodz brand of e-cigarettes, which as well as its name features a logo similar to his own. Or, in legal terms, they “overlap with, are closely related to deadmau5’s goods and services and/or represent a natural zone of expansion for deadmau5, and such goods are or would be marketed and sold to the same types of consumers through the same channels of trade”.

Following an initial cease and desist letter in February, the design of the e-cigarette brand’s logo and the Deadmodz website were reportedly changed, but the music producer’s legal reps reckon those changes did not go far enough. In fact, said lawyers, this simply highlighted that the company knew it was doing something wrong.

“Instead of conceding their wrongdoing and agreeing to comply with our requests, they refused to acknowledge Deadmau5’s intellectual property rights and their wrongdoing, necessitating this legal action”, Deadmau5’s lawyer Irene Lee told THR. “We intend to vigorously protect Deadmau5’s rights”.

West Coast Vape Supply boss Alham Benyameen countered that the case was “trademark bullying at its finest”.