Pepsi Takes Trademark Action Against Ole Smoky

Food and soft drinks giant PepsiCo has taken action to block the Gatlinburg-area legal moonshine distiller Ole Smoky from trademarking “Ole Smoky Mountain Dew Moonshine.”

“Mountain dew” is a dictionary synonym for moonshine, and Pepsi’s own Mountain Dew soft drink has roots in moonshing. The brand originated in the 1930s as a lemon-lime soda marketed for mixing with liquor that, by implication, was illicit. It was later acquired by Pepsi. Now Pepsi alleges that having a legal moonshine on the shelves will result in confused consumers (who will believe they are buying Pepsi-made moonshine) and harm their brand.

Complicating the case is that the rights to make a distilled spirit named Mountain Dew exists, with documentation dating back to the late 19th Century. These rights were sold to Ole Smoky in 2015, who promptly filed for a trademark. For their part, Pepsi holds trademarks for over 20 different iterations of Mountain Dew.