Wine School Files Trademark, Fraud Suit Against Competitor (1)

A Philadelphia-based wine school sued a competitor it claims is illegitimate, unlawfully using its trademarks, and seeking to destroy the school’s “very existence.”

Keith Wallace, his wife Alana Zerbe, and interrelated entities fraudulently procured a trademark registration that’s allowed them to “masquerade under Plaintiff’s valuable PhillyWine name and trademark, and to shut down and/or take over Plaintiff’s social media and Internet platforms,” according to a complaint PhillyWine LLC filed Thursday to the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

PhillyWine and the defendants’ Wine School of Philadelphia have coexisted for ...