Pedro Pascal v Pedro Piscal: actor in legal battle with Chilean spirit brand | Chile
Actor Pedro Pascal is waging a legal battle against a Chilean pisco merchant who chose a cheeky name for his brand that represents the country’s national spirit: Pedro Piscal.
David Herrera registered his brand name with a Chilean trade regulator in 2023 and began selling his pisco in unlicensed venues and restaurants.
“We tried a few names and Pedro Piscal stayed,” said Herrera, 41. “Then we were planning a trip to the Pisco area when suddenly we started receiving strongly worded emails from lawyers. Am I, an ordinary mortal, getting emails from a superstar actor? It kind of freaked me out.”
Pascal, who was born in Chile and is a popular name in his home country, did not attend the hearing but applied to take control of the brand due to its similarity with his own name and brand.
Herrera is not the first Chilean entrepreneur to find himself facing a Hollywood star in court over a cheeky pun. A honey business that used a photo from Braveheart on its label and called itself Miel Gibson won the right to continue using the name after the actor sued.
In 2020, DC Comics went after a bakery in Santiago that had been calling itself Superpan for three decades and used images of Clark Kent and his famous “S” symbol. The bakery emerged victorious.
And at the other end of town, not far from a printing business called Harry Plotter, Matías Jara runs Star Wash, a car wash service that borrows generously from the Star Wars canon and even uses its famous font.
“Chileans are naughty, that’s the point,” Jara said. “We’re always messing around and joking around. We change the lyrics to English songs by translating them into Chilean and we love wordplay; I love Star Wars and I just wanted to stand out with my brand.”
Once a month, drivers can sweep the footwells under the watchful eye of Chewbacca or sit behind the wheel while a group of Stormtroopers oversee the polishing of their windshields, as the forecourt has become a popular hangout for cosplayers.
Star Wash won its first legal battle with Lucasfilm, the rights holder of the Star Wars franchise, to continue using the name, but is still awaiting a decision in another lawsuit that could force Jara to change the company’s name.
As for Pedro Piscal, Herrera said: “I don’t regret it for a moment.” He said he and his cousins were fond of piscola (pisco and Coca-Cola poured over ice) and would call it piscal. Pedro, he said, comes from the pedro ximénez grape variety from which the spirit is distilled.
However, the actor’s lawyers viewed the situation differently. Juan Pablo Silva, managing partner of the firm that represents Pascal, said he could not comment on pending litigation. However, he highlighted the initial decisions transferring ownership of two online domains from Herrera to Pascal, as well as the successful branding of the actor’s name, as reasons for the firm’s optimism about a decision that could come before the end of the year.
Herrera said: “We do not use [Pascal’s] on his face or anywhere like that. We just sell a good product.”
