POM Loses Long-Running False Advertising Suit Against Coca-Cola

Despite winning a 2014 Supreme Court decision, POM Wonderful’s $77 million Lanham Act lawsuit against Coca-Cola recently came to an end when a Central District of California jury ruled that Coca-Cola’s Minute Maid pomegranate juice was not falsely advertised.

In 2008, POM filed suit claiming that the packaging of Minute Maid's pomegranate and blueberry juice was misleading because the drink contained more than 99% apple and grape juice. POM asserted that as a result, its own product lost its place as the biggest-selling pomegranate drink in the United States. The district court granted summary judgment to Coca-Cola, prohibiting POM from pursuing a Lanham Act case against Coca-Cola. In 2014, POM appealed to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court reversed the decision.

Managing Intellectual Property cited Finnegan’s Incontestable blog post about the case:

Coca-Cola presented evidence that back in 2012, a federal administrative judge ruled that POM had made unsubstantiated health benefit claims about its own juice, including that it could reduce the risk of heart disease, prostate cancer, and erectile dysfunction. Coca-Cola argued that '[h]aving created a market by making unsubstantiated health claims, POM cannot now complain that [Coca-Cola] captured a part of that market.’ Further, POM sold a pomegranate blackberry tea that was prominently labeled as 'pomegranate’, but which contained only 1% pomegranate juice.