Duck Walk Vineyards, which has wineries in Water Mill and Southold, was sued in Napa County Superior Court earlier this month for failing to indicate its location on the front of its wine bottles, an alleged violation of a past trademark dispute settlement, according to Napa Valley Register.
Napa Valley Register reports that Duckhorn Wine Co., of California's Napa Valley wine region, came to a settlement in 2003 with Duck Walk Vineyards in which the Long Island company agreed to indicate where the wine was made on the front label of all its wine bottles. The vineyard also agreed that no more than 84,000 gallons of wine could be produced with the word "duck" or pictures of ducks on the bottle — except for the company name, the report states.
The lawsuit claims that Duck Walk has not honored the agreement, and Duckhorn Wine Co. wants Duck Walk to stop selling more than half the wine it produced outside of the tri-state area, according to the report.
An attorney for Duck Walk told Napa Valley Register that Duck Walk is in compliance with the settlement, and Duckhorn Wine Co. does not own the word "duck." The attorney said, “They can sue us all they want. They won’t win.”
Read the article at napavalleyregister.com.