The press release issued by tech company Yeti Data, Inc says that it has served Snowflake, Inc., the $20 billion Silicon Valley poster child that recently made confidential SEC filings for its IPO, with a trademark infringement lawsuit.
The case was brought by Christian W. Liedtke and his team at intellectual property law firm acuminis.
Yeti Data is the brainchild of seasoned executives hailing from household brands such as SAP, IBM, SAS, and McKinsey & Company.
Yeti Data founder Victor Szczerba stated: “Going back as far as 2012, we saw a need for a big data management solution and analytics software that makes data actionable and valuable across data sets.” In addition to their top-notch technology, Victor and his team came up with innovative branding underscoring the problem their technology solves: “Big data is akin to a blinding snowstorm, but customers wish to visualize and understand individual snowflakes.”
Since no one understands snow better than the yeti, we called our company Yeti Data and our solution YETI SNOWFLAKE and SNOWFLAKE.” he explained. “We are solving big, hairy problems!”
The European Union Intellectual Property Office awarded Yeti Data a trademark for SNOWFLAKE with coverage in all 27 EU Member States and the United Kingdom. The United States Patent and Trademark Office rewarded Yeti Data with federal trademark registrations for YETI DATA and YETI SNOWFLAKE.
Snowflake, Inc. entered the market and provides highly similar services, and increasingly more similar over time, under a highly similar, if not identical, company name and trademark. Importantly, as is clear from its federal U.S. trademark registration, Yeti Data was first. In fact, Snowflake did not even acquire www.snowflake.com until the summer of 2018.
“In light of Snowflake’s continued encroachment onto its turf, which even saw Snowflake change its business type filing with the California Secretary of State, and Snowflake’s recalcitrance to settle this matter amicably, Yeti Data was left with no choice but to take on this David vs. Goliath battle and resort to the courts.” said Christian W. Liedtke, P.C. of intellectual property law firm acuminis, who is handling this case for Yeti Data.
“Snowflake’s actions are a flagrant, deliberate, and opportunistic attempt to steal Yeti Data’s ingenious branding, free-ride on Yeti Data’s creativity, and usurp the good will and value of Yeti Data and it’s trademarks” Liedtke expanded. “If Snowflake is not stopped in its tracks, the avalanche that is Snowflake’s continuous marketing campaign will kill the little guy (Yeti) by saturating the market and causing customers to mistakenly belief that YETI SNOWFLAKE services originate from Snowflake, Inc., or worse, that Yeti Data infringes Snowflake Inc.’s, purported, but non-existing, rights.” he warned.
“Snowflake’s tardiness in making sure they do not infringe anyone else’s intellectual property before seeking to go public with a $20 billion valuation and arrogance in refusing to amicably resolve this matter – the whole thing – reminds me of the WeWork disaster. Even unicorns have to keep their house in order.” said Liedtke.
Background:
The case is Yeti Data, Inc. vs. Snowflake, Inc. f/k/a Snowflake Computing, Inc., 2:20-cv-06595-PA-AFM (C.D. Cal., 2020). A copy of the complaint and exhibits can be obtained from https://www.dropbox.com/sh/vctwcpfrbzs8xbc/AAC_9G3y-p7eDIpCHZbMvpd7a?dl=0
