Barking up the Wrong Spirit

Louisville, KY-based Wigglewow, a nonprofit organization that employs adults with special needs to produce gourmet dog treats, is in hot water with Suntory Beam as its lawyers argue that their line of “Maker’s Bark” treats dilute the value of Maker’s Mark and that Wigglewow infringed on the mark knowingly and intentionally. Things get a little tricky because apparently, in 2019, the distillery had the idea of creating dog treats named Maker’s Bark and had contracted a business named Rudy Green Dog Food who then reached out to Wigglewow to assist but nothing came out of it — three years later Wigglewow went ahead and did it.