A Filipino American entrepreneur has accused Pepsi of forcing her company to change its name and plagiarizing their product while claiming to support women-led small businesses.
To add to the insult, Celeste Perez, who co-founded Droplet, said a Pepsi employee bought their drink before the beverage giant launched a similar version right on Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.
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What happened: Perez said it all started in January 2020 when Pepsi legally forced her team to change their brand, Dewdrop, because it might be confused with Mtn Dew.
- By August, Dewdrop had given in to all of Pepsiâs demands, abandoning trademark filings and changing its name to Droplet to avoid further harassment and legal fees.
- Perez said they pursued all these changes despite the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) saying Dewdrop would not be in conflict with Mtn Dew.
- Droplet thought everything had been settled until February of this year when a Pepsi employee sampled their product as a way of âsupporting small businesses.â
- To Perez and her teamâs horror, Pepsi released its latest drink called Soulboost last week, which allegedly resembled their own product.
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Alleged plagiarism: After Soulboostâs launch, Perez immediately compared it with Droplet and found glaring similarities.
- For one, the text in Soulboostâs marketing posts and Dewdropâs original logo apparently use the same typeface.
- Perez noticed similarities between Soulboostâs press release and a Droplet feature story, as well as in both productsâ websites and actual cans.
- âIt felt like they watched all our pitches, read all of our interviews, studied our website and took notes,â Perez wrote in her Instagram exposĂ©.
- Perez also felt that Soulboost used Dropletâs product guide for its social media voice, having used the phrase âlook good, feel goodâ in one of its posts.
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Pepsiâs response: Without naming any entity, Pepsi denied allegations of plagiarism in an Instagram post on Tuesday.
- According to the company, Soulboost has been âa labor of loveâ from its Innovation team for two years.
- Pepsi said that it filed to register the trademark in summer 2019 and subsequently completed both product and design, which was âoriginal, existing artwork we licensed from an independent artist.â
- The beverage giant claimed that there is âsimply no meritâ to any claims of inspiration because Soulboost was âbuilt on consumer insights and the accelerating trend of functional products.â
- The company confirmed that it took action against the Mtw Dew trademark infringement but pointed out that protecting the brand and creating Soulboost are occurrences that âlive completely independently.â
Perez said many have asked Droplet about its next move, but their hands are simply tied. She said she can only hope for consumers to believe in authenticity.
âAll of Droplet came from who we are, what we believe in, and the ingredients and traditions we have always appreciated and grew up around,” she noted. âThatâs the part that hurts the most — these were our words, our creations, a little bit of our own souls out there doing the work.â
Featured Images via Droplet (left), Soulboost / Pepsi (right)