Jimmy Donaldson, better known by his alias MrBeast, is a celebrated YouTuber with over 218 million subscribers. However, aside from being a successful content creator, the 25-year-old is also a good businessman. He founded the chocolate company called Feastables in 2022, which has a variety of chocolates with one of the most popular products being the “Deez Nuts” candy bars.
The success of “Deez Nuts” soon caught the attention of an American chocolate company called Dee’s Nuts, which sells chocolate-covered gourmet nuts and apparel all year round. The latter filed a lawsuit against MrBeast’s candy bar for trademark infringement. Meanwhile, the YouTuber argued that he had used this branding based on the popular “deez nuts” joke.
MrBeast must remove “Deez Nuts”name from his candy bar after lawsuit from Dee’s Nuts pic.twitter.com/dvMrFBFogs
— Controller (@ControllerByRap) December 14, 2023
Eventually, the court ruled the case in Dee’s Nut’s favor and prohibited MrBeast from using “Deez Nuts” branding for any product he releases in the future. However, much to everyone’s surprise, Deez Nuts are still available online. The official Feastables site still sells ten packs of Deez Nuts for $29.99, and there is also an image of the YouTuber holding these candy bars.
MrBeast acknowledges his brand was confusingly similar to Dee’s Nuts
Donaldson and Feastables acknowledged the accusation against them, as they also thought the brand name “Deez Nuts” was confusingly similar to “Dee’s Nuts.” This made the YouTube star guilty of borderline copyright infringement.
Brian Ditore sells peanuts under Dees Nuts, LLC, named for his grandmother, ‘Mrs. Dee.’ He won a suit to keep YouTuber Mr. Beast from using a similar name. https://t.co/g9MuInC6RZ
— First Coast News (@FCN2go) December 14, 2023
According to Business Insider, the Duval County-based chocolate company trademarked “Dee’s Nuts” with the US Patent and Trademark Office in 2012. Their lawyers further stated how searching for their chocolates on retail websites shows MrBeast’s “Deez Nuts” in the results. Moreover, they didn’t have resources or the online reach like Donaldson to clear the confusion.
After considering all the facts, the court ruled in Dee’s Nut’s favor. However, it is still unclear whether the 25-year-old YouTube star had to pay for any monetary damages in the final settlement. Nevertheless, now with MrBeast continuing to sell Deez Nuts, it would be interesting to see how Dee’s Nuts would respond to it. Will he face consequences for going against the court’s ruling?
