Social media startup Fizz is specializing in trademark infringement, suing grocery delivery giant Instacart and party planning apps, the company announced Thursday. Earlier this week, Instacart launched a new drink and snack delivery app for parties called Fizz, and announced that Partiful has integrated Fizz directly into the platform.
Founded in 2020, Fizz is a GEN Z-focused social networking app available on campuses of over 400 university.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, seeks a court order that prevents the use of the “fizz” name in connection with a ju trial, injunctive relief, damages, and social or event planning services.
Instacart and Partiful did not respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment.
The lawsuit states that Fizz has been using the “Fizz” trademark since January 2022 and has applied for trademark registration in December 2021. The startup is condemning Instacart and Common Law Trademark infringement, federal trademark infringement, cyberschooting and violations of California’s Space Race Act.
“This new Fizz app by Instacart and Partiful is a blatant attempt by plaintiffs to misappropriate painstaking goodwill by continuing to use the Fizz mark among the Gen-Z demographic,” the lawsuit reads. “Instacart and Partiful are competing head-on with plaintiffs in the core markets of the Gen-Z demographic event planning. Instacart and Partiful have been able to choose names for their new ventures, but rather than compete in a uniform arena, they are burning.”
Fizz claims that Instacart and Partiful intentionally launched a new app with the same name in the same Gen Z demographic, creating a possible confusion among customers who believe the new ordering service is affiliated or approved with Fizz.
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The startup also claims that Instacart and Partiful are leveraging brand recognition as a known social platform for Gen Z.
“The plaintiff was notified and believed, alleging that there was malicious intent to seek to benefit from Fizz Marks when Defendant Instacart registered the domain name,” the lawsuit states. “Specifically, Defendant Instacart should have known or should have known the Fizz Mark, or incorporated the plaintiff’s trademark and trademark name into its domain name. In doing so, Defendant Instacart intended to bypass the defendant’s own commercial gain from the Fizz Platform online location to the Fizz app online location of the Fizz app.”
Additionally, the lawsuit claims that it is using Fizz’s name to disrupt the Gen Z demographic after it competes directly with Fizz in the Paris-ful event planning space “to win the Gen Z market through fair competition.”
The lawsuit, released today, is not Fizz’s first legal action brush as it sued rival Sidechat in 2023 over unfair competitive practices.