Pedro Pascal v Pedro Piscal: actor in legal battle with Chilean spirit trademark | Chile

The actor Pedro Pascal is waging a legal battle against a Chilean pisco merchant who chose a cheeky name for his brand of the country’s national spirit: Pedro Piscal.

David Herrera registered the brand name with a Chilean commercial regulator in 2023 and began selling his pisco in off-licences and restaurants.

“We tried a few names and Pedro Piscal stuck,” Herrera, 41, said. “Then we were planning a trip to the Pisco region when suddenly we got strongly worded emails from lawyers. Me, a mere mortal, getting emails from a superstar actor? It scared me a little.”

Pascal, who was born in Chile and is a popular figure in his native country, did not attend a court hearing but filed to take control of the brand name because of the similarity to his own name and brand.

Herrera is not the first Chilean entrepreneur to take a Hollywood A-lister to court over a cheeky pun. A honey business calling itself Miel Gibson – with a still image of Braveheart on the label – won the right to continue using the name after the actor sued.

In 2020, DC Comics went after a bakery in Santiago that called itself Superpan for three decades and used images of Clark Kent and his famous “S” symbol. The bakery emerged as winners.

And across town, not far from a printing company called Harry Plotter, Matías Jara runs Star Wash, a car wash service that borrows liberally from the Star Wars canon – and even uses its famous font.

“Chileans are mischievous, that’s the thing,” Jara said. “We’re always messing around and joking. We change the lyrics to songs in English to chill it out, and we like wordplay – I love Star Wars and just wanted to stand out with my brand.”

Once a month, motorists can have their footwells vacuumed under the watchful eye of Chewbacca or sit behind the wheel while a gaggle of Stormtroopers oversee the polishing of their windshields, as the forecourt has become a popular meeting place for cosplayers.

Star Wash won its initial legal battle with Lucasfilm, the rights holder of the Star Wars franchise, to continue using the name, but is still awaiting a ruling in another case that could force Jara to change the company’s name.

As for Pedro Piscal, Herrera said: “I don’t regret it for a second.” He said he and his cousins ​​were part of a piscola – pisco and Coca-Cola poured over ice – and he would call it a piscal. He said Pedro comes from the Pedro Ximénez grape variety, from which the spirit is distilled.

But the actor’s lawyers saw it differently. Juan Pablo Silva, the managing partner at the firm representing Pascal, said he could not comment on an ongoing case. However, he highlighted initial rulings transferring ownership of two online domains from Herrera to Pascal, as well as the actor successfully trademarking his name, as reasons for the firm’s optimism about a decision that could come before the end of the year.

Herrera said: “We’re not using (Pascal’s) face or his likeness anywhere. We’re just selling a good product.”