Former two-time world super middleweight champion Jeff Lacy has filed a trademark infringement lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia over his “LEFT HOOK” trademark.
Specifically, he alleged that Georgia’s RaceTrac Petroleum, Inc. engaged in “trademark infringement and unlawful competition” for launching and selling a “LEFT HOOK” energy drink beginning in the summer of 2013. Lacy is seeking damages of $519,786,000 as well as the removal of the drink from the marketplace.
In the lawsuit filed by attorney Luke Anderson, Lacy and his co-plaintiff, manager Clay Dustin, state that, “Mr. Lacy never authorized RaceTrac to use the “LEFT HOOK” mark for its energy drink or otherwise. Accordingly, in March 2016 Mr. Lacy notified RaceTrac that its use of the LEFT HOOK mark infringed his trademark rights. With full knowledge of Mr. Lacy’s superior rights to the LEFT HOOK mark RaceTrac had the option of conforming its unlawful conduct by voluntarily ceasing its infringement. RaceTrac chose not to. Instead RaceTrac showed absolute disregard for Mr. Lacy’s rights and the impact that its unlawful actions had on him and the LEFT HOOK mark by continuing its unlawful infringement unabated.”
A member of the 2000 United States Olympic team, Lacy, 40, is a two-time world champion, holding the IBF super middleweight world title in 2004 and IBO super middleweight world title in 2005, and successfully defended the titles four times.
He claimed specifically that boxing fans who frequently shop RaceTrac convenience stores have expressed confusion in purchasing LEFT HOOK energy drink and have stated that their belief was the product was Jeff “LEFT HOOK” Lacy’s energy drink.
