PEI Licensing—the company behind legacy labels like Perry Ellis and Original Penguin—filed suit March 4 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, accusing crypto-native brand Pudgy Penguins of trademark infringement and unfair competition.
What PEI says
- PEI alleges Pudgy Penguins has engaged in “unauthorized use and attempted registration of various Penguin word and design trademarks,” damaging PEI’s goodwill and business reputation. PEI says its penguin design has appeared on apparel since at least 1956 and its penguin word mark has been in use since 1967.
- The complaint claims consumers are likely to be confused into thinking the two brands are connected, and points to side-by-side examples of apparel and headwear PEI says show “immediate similarities.”
- PEI also highlights Pudgy Penguins’ recent trademark applications for phrases such as “I am my penguin and my penguin is me” and “Pengu Nation,” noting those filings cover the same categories of goods PEI uses its marks on.
- According to the suit, PEI first sent a cease-and-desist on Oct. 20, 2023, then filed oppositions to at least two Pudgy Penguins trademark applications with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in 2024. PEI alleges Pudgy Penguins continued to use the marks in commerce and kept its USPTO applications active, conduct PEI calls “willful and intentional.”
- Remedies sought include disgorgement of profits from sales using similar marks, rejection of Pudgy Penguins’ USPTO applications, and seizure and destruction of allegedly infringing products.
Who Pudgy Penguins is
- Pudgy Penguins began as an Ethereum NFT collection in 2021 and has since become a prominent crypto-native brand and IP. It also issues a Solana-based culture token, PENGU, and launched a physical toy line that reached major retailers including Walmart and Target—reportedly generating more than $10 million in sales in under a year.
Pudgy Penguins’ response
Jennifer McGlone, Chief Legal Officer of Pudgy Penguins & Igloo Inc., told Decrypt the company was “surprised” by the lawsuit and noted the parties had been in “productive discussions” to resolve the matter. She said Pudgy Penguins has prevailed in advancing multiple trademark applications at the USPTO, that the marks are “visually distinct,” and that they target “entirely different” audiences and markets. McGlone added the company is confident PEI’s claims lack merit.
Why it matters
This dispute pits a decades-old apparel brand against a high-profile Web3 IP as NFT projects increasingly expand into physical goods and mainstream retail—raising fresh questions about where traditional trademark law intersects with crypto-native brands. PEI’s move signals that legacy rights-holders are willing to take aggressive legal action to protect established marks as the line between digital collections and consumer products continues to blur.
Attorneys for PEI Licensing did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Editor’s note: Adds Pudgy Penguins’ comment from Chief Legal Officer Jennifer McGlone.
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