Liquid Death’s ‘Armless Palmer’ Stunt Evokes Clash of IP Rights

The unconventional beverage company, Liquid Death, may have dodged the courtroom by changing the name of its tea and lemonade concoction from “Armless Palmer” to “Dead Billionaire”, however, it still leaves to question the intersection of trademarks, right of publicity, and genericide.

On November 25, the company took to Instagram to announce their switch to a name “that won’t require us to fight a senseless battle.” This implied that Arnold Palmer Enterprises, Inc., founded by the late golfer and owner of Arnold Palmer trademarks, disapproved of Liquid Death’s branding.

The “Dead Billionaire” name could help the company evade trade or right of publicity litigation, however, it leaves unresolved questions that would have been raised by an effort to legally enforce the rights to “Arnold Palmer,” a name synonymous with iced tea and lemonade mixes.

Finnegan partner Danny Awdeh told Bloomberg Law that, “a court has to somehow ‘quantify’ the ‘level of misuse’ of a purported brand to determine its primary function.”

“I don’t think you’re going to find black and white answers,” he said.

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