Olympic Committee sues Prime for “millions of dollars” over its collab with Kevin Durant

Logan Paul and KSI‘s Prime has landed in more legal trouble.

Already facing a $5 million lawsuit from California over its marketing practices, Prime is now being sued by the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) over how it branded its collaboration with Olympic gold medalist and Phoenix Suns power forward Kevin Durant.

Prime launched a Durant-branded version of its core Prime Hydration drink July 9, which featured a navy blue wraparound label with a gold star. It’s far from Prime’s first athlete collaboration (just look at this lineup), but it is the first to result in a lawsuit.

The USOPC alleges that Prime’s promotional material included phrases like “Team USA Kevin Durant Drink,” “Kevin Durant Olympic Prime Drink,” and “Going for Gold,” along with the more generic “Olympic” and “Olympian.” Those latter two, along with “Going for Gold” and “Team USA,” are all trademarked by the committee.

The lawsuit claims a USOPC lawyer contacted Prime July 10 and asked it to stop using trademarked language, but the promotions continued.

“Prime Hydration’s conduct has been and continues to be willful, deliberate, and in bad faith, with malicious intent,” the suit alleges.

A significant part of this lawsuit revolves around Coca-Cola, which has an agreement with the USOPC that states it’s the only one allowed to use phrases like “Olympic” and “Team USA” on drinks in the U.S.

Per the suit, Coca-Cola made “a significant monetary contribution” to obtain those exclusive rights, and the committee considers Prime’s usage of the phrases to be a threat to that partnership. As a result, the committee now wants a judge to rule that Prime has to hand over all profits it’s made from the Durant collaboration, along with an additional “millions of dollars” in damages.

Both these lawsuits, regardless of outcomes, can be a lesson to other creators making their own products: It’s one thing to express your opinion in a video, and another thing entirely to make statements as a brand.