1st BATCH OF FILES AVAILABLE NOW!

Yesterday, a fed judge in South Texas permanently blocked Oz Trading from "importing, selling, marketing, advertising, promoting, and/or distributing goods" with Modelo trademarks licensed to Constellation in the US. Ruling made permanent the preliminary injunction entered in Feb 2025 against the co and its principal Oziel Trevi&ntilde;o, who thruout the proceedings still "does not seem to recognize that his conduct was illegal or even improper," judge wrote. And tho this settles trademark dispute over Grupo Modelo brands, separate proceedings with Heineken USA continue, let alone any consequences for unlicensed sales Oz admitted. Indeed, "Oz Trading admits that it imported beer products bearing the labels at issue into the United States from Mexico and sold them in significant quantities at least to customers in Texas, Utah, and Georgia," the judge summarized in yesterday's order. Yet the co didn't just do all that on the sly. Recall, Oz used a third party service (Rezzonator) to file for fed label approvals (COLAs) from TTB for the Mexican import brands it hawked on LinkedIn, for instance, alerting Constellation to co's activity. Rezzonator dropped the COLAs when STZ reached out and the rightful US importer of Modelo's brands filed suit against Oz in Sep 2024. But by Dec, Oz refiled for new COLAs for the "brazen counterfeits" it was peddling, the judge recounted, leading to the Feb prelim injunction and now this ruling.The judge's legal analysis is about as brief as could be. There was no real dispute at issue. ABI-owned Grupo Modelo, which joined STZ in the dispute, unquestionably owns the brands and the trademarks, which is licensed solely to Constellation in the US. Oz's actions "create a strong likelihood of confusion," a violation of fed trademark law. And "all evidence points to Defendant being knowing in his actions," the judge wrote, tho not necessarily knowing quite how illegal those actions happen to be. With ongoing infringement deemed likely, a permanent injunction is warranted, the judge agreed.A separate but parallel dispute with HUSA progressed a bit differently since each large importer filed suit in late 2024. Since Oz appears not to have attempted to get new COLAs for Heineken-owned brands after the co sued, there was no preliminary injunction and the suit moved more normally into the discovery stage. That's set to end tomorrow, as of a schedule set last May and signed by the same judge overseeing the STZ case. Yet Oz didn't properly comply with discovery in the STZ suit and struggled to maintain consistent representation for the last couple yrs, the judge summarized. Another atty withdrew from the case last Dec. So HUSA's suit could be headed the same direction.But these trademark-related suits always appeared to be strangely formal sideshows to a much bigger allegation: unlicensed sales of alc bevs illegally imported into the US and sold across state lines, including thru social media sites. And again, that's not supposition. Trevi&ntilde;o essentially admitted as much. The judge also pointed to evidence that Oz "improperly targeted consumers 18 years of age and older," not 21+. But it remains unclear if state or federal regulators will pursue cases related to the conduct at issue here, especially given additional sensitivities and complications of cross-border relations.

False Importer Blocked from Trafficking "Brazen Counterfeits" of Modelo Brands; Illegal Sales?

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