You Can Learn A Lot About Trademarks from Yellowstone Characters

The recent trademark fight between two Yellowstone actors started a friendly debate between my husband and I on how far trademark rights can really go. My husband is not a lawyer, but he is a consumer of Yellowstone. So, he thinks he is qualified to weigh in on this one. I, of course, used it as an opportunity to teach him a few things.

In November, Taylor Sheridan’s company, Bosque Ranch, sued Cole Hauser’s company, Free Rein, for Lanham Act and trademark infringement under Texas trademark law. Sheridan is the creator of Yellowstone and has been using the name Bosque Ranch for various companies since 2004. In 2023, Sheridan started using the name for coffee. Cole Hauser plays Rip on Yellowstone and it appears started using the name Free Rein in 2023 in connection with his coffee company.  

If you are like my husband, you are questioning how “Bosque Ranch” could be confused with “Free Rein”. But it isn’t the names themselves that caused the fight – it was the logos.

They are both styled after cattle brands in keeping with their cowboy themes. They both have two letters stacked on top of each other and the second letter is an “R”. While the first letter is not the same, the visual effect between the “F” and the “B” is similar. Bosque Ranch has a registered trademark on the “BR” mark for Classes 9 and 41, both for media related uses, and applications pending for use with coffee and coffee accessories. Free Rein does not have any registrations on its “FR” mark, but has filed trademark applications for the mark.

I wondered if the similarities could be attributed to the fact that these are both supposed to be cattle brands. But, a search of images of cattle brands does not show many brands like these. In fact, most of the cattle brands that I saw place the letters side by side.

That said, there are differences. The font for the letters is not the same. Bosque Ranch uses clean lines and a curved R, whereas Free Rein’s lines are broken up by the lines from other letters and the R is not curved. I’ll also note that Free Rein and Bosque Ranch do not use the marks in the same way.  Bosque Ranch’s brand logo predominates the coffee packaging. Free Rein uses the logo on the side of its coffee packaging. (Although it does use the logo exclusively on some coffee mugs that it sells on its website.) 

Unlike my husband, I thought Free Rein’s decision to use a mark so close to Bosque Ranch was risky and I was not going to be surprised if the company rebranded its coffee. In fact, Free Rein is signaling that it plans to rebrand because it recently abandoned its federal trademark application for its brand mark.

Rebranding means a company changes its brand strategy after launching a product. This is an expensive proposition for any company, and the expense is not just limited to new packaging and designs. Consumers create buying habits by buying the same brands over and over again. A rebrand will interrupt consumer habits, making consumers less comfortable with repurchasing the brand and allow a competing brand to establish a new purchase pattern with a competing brand. This is particularly true in Free Rein’s case because its association with Cole and Yellowstone gave it initial free press and drove consumer behavior toward the original brand. The company will likely lose that momentum after a rebrand.

Before you feel sorry for Free Rein, you should note that a trademark clearance search would have shown the similarities between its “FR” mark and Bosque Raches “BR” mark.  In fact, I ran a clearance search on Free Rein’s “FR” mark and it hit on several other marks, including Bosque Ranch’s mark. If Free Rein would have run such a search, it could have either avoided the mark or at least avoided the similarities between the marks and lead with a different mark. In this particular case, however, it would have been important for Free Rein to run a broader clearance search.  A search for just registered trademarks or applications limited to coffee would not have disclosed the existence of the “BR” mark because Bosque Ranch did not register the “BR” mark for coffee until after Free Rein filed its application. Being first to file, however, does not give Free Rein the right to use the “FR” mark because it was not the first to use it in the market for coffee.  Bosque Ranch launched its coffee in June 2023 and Free Rein began using its mark in October 2023.

This fight was also an important lesson for Bosque Ranch. It sat on its coffee branding for months before it filed a trademark application. Its delay made it easy for Free Rein to think that it could use its mark for coffee without causing consumer confusion.