Logan Paul is facing a lawsuit over copyright violation claims by the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee.
In a lawsuit filed in the United States District Court for the District of Colorado on Friday, the Olympic Committee alleged that YouTube stars Paul and KSI’s energy drink company, PRIME, had been using trademarked symbols and phrases as part of a recent promotion featuring NBA star and 2024 U.S.A. men’s basketball team member Kevin Durant.
The lawsuit seeks all of the profits that Prime derived from products that infringed on Olympic trademarks as well as “millions of dollars” in damages to be determined at trial.
The phrases included “Olympic,” “Olympian,” “Team USA,” and Going for Gold,” according to the lawsuit.
The suit pointed in particular to a Prime Hydration drink that featured Durant, the star forward for the Phoenix Suns, who is trying to win his fourth gold medal this summer as a member of the U.S. Olympic basketball team.
The US Olympic Committee is suing Prime energy, the hydration drink company by Logan Paul and KSI
They claim the limited-edition Kevin Durant bottles feature trademarked Olympic phrases and symbols pic.twitter.com/FBYrUwMXqJ
— Frontier (@FrontierRise) July 22, 2024
On July 10, an Olympic Committee lawyer contacted Prime and asked the company to stop using those trademarks, the lawsuit said. However, the company continued to ship the drink to stores and feature the drink on its LinkedIn account after receiving that warning, the suit stated.
“Prime Hydration’s conduct has been and continues to be willful, deliberate, and in bad faith, with malicious intent to trade on the goodwill of the USOPC and the IOC,” the lawsuit stated, adding that the company has caused “damage and irreparable injury” to the USOPC.
The lawsuit stated that Coca-Cola made a “significant monetary contribution” for the exclusive right to use Olympic trademarks, and the value of that sponsorship deal is threatened if other companies used those trademarks without permission.
The committee, which is responsible for supporting Team USA athletes through training and funding, also stated in the lawsuit that it relied heavily on licensing its trademarks to fund the U.S. Olympic Team, as it doesn’t receive financial assistance from the federal government.
Paul, who founded Prime Hydration in 2022 along with another YouTube personality, faced legal trouble last year when Sen. Chuck Schumer called on the Food and Drug Administration to investigate Prime. According to Schumer, the drink, which has gained a lot of popularity with young crowds, contains extremely high levels of caffeine that are not safe for child consumption.
“First off, anyone can sue anyone at any time; that does not make the lawsuit true,” Paul said in a TikTok video in April. “And in this case, it is not… one person conducted a random study and has provided zero evidence to substantiate any of their claims.”