Social media startup Fizz sues Instacart and Partiful for trademark infringement over new Fizz app | TechCrunch

Social media startup Fizz is suing grocery supply large Instacart and occasion planning app Partiful for trademark infringement, the corporate introduced on Thursday. Earlier this week, Instacart launched a brand new drinks and snack supply app for events referred to as Fizz and introduced that Partiful had built-in Fizz instantly into its platform.

Based in 2020, Fizz is a Gen Z-focused social networking app accessible on greater than 400 faculty campuses.

The go well with, filed Wednesday within the U.S. District Court docket for the Northern District of California, seeks a jury trial, injunctive reduction, damages, and a courtroom order barring Instacart and Partiful from utilizing the “FIZZ” identify in reference to social or occasion planning providers.

Instacart and Partiful didn’t reply to TechCrunch’s request for remark.

Within the lawsuit, Fizz states that it has been utilizing the “FIZZ” trademark since January 2022 and filed for trademark registration in December 2021. The startup is accusing Instacart and Partiful of widespread regulation trademark infringement, federal trademark infringement, cybersquatting, and violating California’s unfair competitors legal guidelines.

“This new Fizz App by Instacart and Partiful is a blatant try to misappropriate the goodwill that Plaintiff has painstakingly developed by means of its steady use of the FIZZ Marks among the many Gen-Z demographic,” the lawsuit reads. “Collectively, Instacart and Partiful are competing head-on with Plaintiff in its core market of occasion planning for the Gen-Z demographic. Instacart and Partiful might have chosen any identify for his or her new enterprise, however quite than compete on a good taking part in discipline, they’re utilizing FIZZ.”

Fizz alleges that Instacart and Partiful knowingly launched the brand new app with the equivalent identify for a similar Gen Z demographic, making a chance of confusion amongst clients who might imagine that the brand new ordering service is affiliated with or endorsed by Fizz.

The startup additionally alleges that Instacart and Partiful are exploiting its model recognition as a recognized social platform for Gen Z.

“Plaintiff is knowledgeable and believes and thereupon alleges that Defendant Instacart had a nasty religion intent to revenue from the FIZZ Marks when it registered the area identify ,” the lawsuit states. “Particularly, Defendant Instacart knew or ought to have recognized of the FIZZ Marks and included Plaintiff’s trademark and commerce identify in its area identify. In doing so, Defendant Instacart supposed to divert customers from the Fizz Platform’s on-line location to the Fizz App on-line location for Defendant’s personal business acquire.”

Moreover, the lawsuit alleges that Partiful competes with Fizz instantly within the occasions planning house, and that the corporate is now utilizing Fizz’s identify to confuse the Gen Z demographic after failing “to win the Gen Z market by means of honest competitors.”

The lawsuit introduced right now isn’t Fizz’s first brush with authorized motion, because the startup sued rival Sidechat in 2023 over unfair competitors practices.