Volt vs. Vault
According to Bevnet, beverage giant Coca-Cola is being sued by a small company called High Voltage Beverages.
High Voltage claims that Coke has been marketing their drink Vault, which has a similar sounding name as their beverage Volt, as a way to basically shut them down.
Vault has been on the market since 2005, while Volt was just unleashed in 2007. However, High Voltage claims they filed for their trademark in 1997.
Let’s compare the two drinks and see what’s creating all the confusion among the so called ignorant consumers who obviously are believed not to be able to tell the difference between the word volt and vault.
So they both are green and citrus like. They both are a soda with extra caffeine. However, the logos are clearly different and the bottle designs are different.
I don’t get it. I don’t think I would be confused between the two. In fact it’s pretty insulting as a consumer to be labeled as stupid enough to not be able to tell the difference at the convenience store.
Mountain Dew should sue because on Volt’s website it states, ” When dew won’t do it”.
What do you think? Do think High Voltage Beverages has a case? Participate in the poll below.
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It’s not about the can, people will go to the store and be like hmmm, i thought it looked different I guess thats it.. And vise a versa. In this case why can’t the little guy win? They had a great idea, marketed their idea first, then they should not be bullied, by Coke. Go Volt!!!! Good luck!
Volt looks like a cheap rip off.
honestly their bottle design and logo make me think grocery store special.. like safeway select… only it probably doesn’t have the super low price tag.
do they have a case in taste? if volt is a superior product (tastes better, has more caffeine) then they should stand out as a better product and grow enough that vault shouldn’t matter. if it sucks they just need to go home and call it a life.
Factually incorrect. Volt has been on the market for several years.
Trademark laws in America exist to protect not just the economic interest of big companies like a Microsoft or Disney but also to guard the rights of small companies (even individuals) so that the small company that comes up with an idea first doesn’t get squashed by the bigger wallet and staying power of the big boys.
well bill, 2007 is about two years ago now.
I’d put money on Coke’s lawyers over the other guy. Filing a trademark in 97 and marketing a drink much later isn’t much of a claim.
Can Jolt go after Volt because they rhyme, and it might confuse the over worked parent who just wants to buy their little darlings their favorite energy soda.
Not so fast, Chris, putting your money on Coke’s lawyer’s ain’t exactly going to help your net worth!
volt vault volt vault volt vault. Yea, sounds like a bit of confusion going on to my way of thinking.
Size has nothing to do with this sort of legal dogfight as I just said in my BevNet post. Trademark law exist to help protect the individual inventor as well as the HUGE company that FIRST staked their claim at the trademark office. Since VOLT was on the register way before BEFORE Coke ever came out with Vault, that gives VOLT something called “priority rights”. Just like an old time prospector “staking a claim” by walking into the county clerk’s office and alerting the world to his mining work. It will be tough to overcome that uphill legal hurdle if you are COKE - no matter how many legal beagles they sic on VOLT! As long as HVB wasn’t just laying in the bushes for ten years with a sniper rifle waiting to shoot at some careless — or just plain dumb — trademark trespasser, VOLT will win this one. (That’s my bet, anyway! Googling “Volt drinks” shows me that they’re the real McCoy and not some phony. If they had been just warehousing their trademark and done nothing to move it along, it would be a different story!) Yea, they’re small but so what? Who even heard of Vitamin Water, Fuze and Odwalia 8 years ago?
Anyway glad to see someone in this biz has the balls (or insanity?) to take on the BIG RED ONE.
You and I may differ on how we view this, but eventually a jury of waitresses, truck drivers, accountants, teachers and/or unemployed folks (more of those every day, it seems) will decide what’s confusing and what isn’t.
This is ridiculous and absurd.
I agree, a total waste of our tax dollars.
I saw another article on this case. As far as the brand, I can “hear” the confusion in the pronunciation. With as many English dialects as we have in the US, some group somewhere has to pronounce them the same. As far as the trademark, if Volt can establish the first-to-market claim (which is not hard to do), then they have a slam dunk case. Someone at Coke is going to lose his job.
This is obviously a legal scam. They were sitting on the rights until a situation arose that they could use for a lawsuit. Greedy bitches. It’s obvious they copied Vaults colors to push the trademark issue. High Voltage doesn’t care about making a better drink, just making a killing off a legal settlement.
Either way the Vault name should be changed. Naming a drink after a type of toilet is retarded.
this has got to be the stupidest thing ever, so many things have similar names, anyone with half a brain would be able to tell the difference.
it seems that this little company is trying to get a few bucks offa coke. why do people have to partonize a good product? does volt have proof of this tradmark filed in 1997? i think not. personally i have never heard of volt, and wish vault was sold in more areas of CT, i could live offa the stuff.
Vault is an excellent drink, great taste, good kick. I have never tried Volt. Why? Cuz I’ve never seen or heard of it before.
That having been said, there is NO WAY a small company like that could even THINK of taking on Coke. Just not going to happen. When you rake in the kind of profits that the big guys do, you can afford the best of lawyers (and everything else). And in today’s profit-driven society, whoever has the most money wins. Period.
Personally I don’t care to try a cheap knock-off if I’m satisfied with the quality of Vault. And I really couldn’t care less if different ethnic groups are “confused” because of the product’s name. If you can’t understand the difference between the “au” and the “o” sound, then just learn better English.
Techincally, Coke has the better case here. The product has been on the shelves longer, is more widely distrbuted.
This reads more like a small company trying to make money. Their product isn’t going well. They’ve been at it for less time than coke. They released their product long after Vault did. But they never bothered to do research on the field of beverages they were going into? Come on. No company releases a product without Market Research.
But it’s America. Chances are the small company will win.
When your product is a failure, sue the guy with the closes product to yours!
This is a stupid case. Anyone with half a brain could figure that Volt and Vault are different products by looking at them, as the logos are completely different. Volt looks like a generic version of Vault. Has Mountain Dew sued Safeway for the similar sounding Mountain Breeze? No. Could Jolt sue Volt if Volt somehow sucessfully sues Coke over Volt? Hmm…Both are high energy drinks. Jolt Volt Jolt Volt Jolt. Sounds similar. Everyone knows Jolt has been on the market a lot longer. Coke is going to have the the best lawyers in the world…and a weak case against them. This will be an easy case for them to win, and a waste of money for the makers of Volt. I’ll be rooting for Big Red on this one.
Oh, and will the makers of Volt try to sue GM over the name of the upcoming Chevy Volt? Gimme me a break!
Vault Zero was my favorite soda but it has vanished from stores everywhere in South Jersey. I called Coke’s bottling company in Philadelphia and they told me it’s no longer being carried. Such a shame, because it seemed to be a decent seller.