Elon Musk Fails to Trademark ‘Teslaquila’ as He Goes Up Against Mexico’s Tequila Regulatory Council

Perhaps drink and driving isn’t that good of a mix after all. CEO of car brand Tesla and billionaire Elon Musk’s ‘Teslaquila’ blue agave liquor is facing a hold back on the trademark application because Mexico’s Tequila Regulatory Council (CRT) argued that the “name ‘Teslaquila’ evokes the word Tequila ... (and) Tequila is a protected word.”

Tesla has filed an application to trademark “Teslaquila” as a “distilled agave liquor” and “distilled blue agave liquor”. (read more here)

Other high-profile celebrities have also benefited from tequila’s newly discovered international appeal, as the spirit moves up in the ranks of top-shelf liquors.

Last year, Diageo Plc bought actor George Clooney’s high-end tequila brand Casamigos which is thought to be worth $1 billion, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson’s tequila ‘Mana’, and Justin Timberlake in 2009 with his ‘Sauza 901’ amongst many other celebrities. Other recent deals in the industry include Bacardi Ltd’s January deal to buy tequila maker Patron Spirits International for $5.1 billion and after years of speculation, Mexico’s Beckmann family launched an initial public offering of Jose Cuervo in 2017, raising more than $900 million.

The issue arises with trademarking the name, as branding the drink as ‘Teslaquila’ could make consumers confuse the drink with ‘Tequila’, which is why Mexico’s Tequila Regulatory Council are trying to hold back the billionaires efforts to trademark his beverage.

The CRT said: "If it wants to make Teslaquila viable as a tequila, it would have to associate itself with an authorized tequila producer, comply with certain standards and request authorization from Mexico's Industrial Property Institute,"

Tesla did not respond to several requests for comment.

However, Mr.Musk took to Twitter to tweet “We will fight Big Tequila!” on November 14th – let the fight begin.

By Sena Tokel, a student at Southampton Solent University