PepsiCo Inc. v. TrackMania Exchange

PepsiCo Inc. v. TrackMania Exchange was a court case held in 2010 over the use of the term fullspeed. The case was opened by PepsiCo due to their belief that TMX had infringed on their trademarks regarding the term. The case was originally won by PepsiCo, but a severe scandal opened when it was revealed that the company had bribed members of the jury. The result was overturned, and the scandal's fallout resulted in multiple senior members of PepsiCo's European division being removed in the following weeks.
==Background==
In 2003, Nadeo released the first game in the Trackmania franchise. One of the many map styles that were born out of the game was the fullspeed map style. Although originally more underground compared to other styles such as LoL, which the style was born out of, fullspeed had become a popular style by the release of TrackMania Nations Forever in 2008. TrackMania Exchange, a track-hosting website for the Trackmania franchise which became massively popular due to the success of Nations Forever, began to sell merchandise to help pay for the quickly rising server costs as the amount of tracks stored skyrocketed. One of the pieces of merchandise included a fullspeed shirt, which was based around some of the more popular tracks of the style.
In 2004, PepsiCo released a new energy drink, called FullSpeed. It began to gain popularity, particularly in Eastern Europe, and by 2007 had become the most popular energy drink in that region.
== Proceedings ==
In May 2010, PepsiCo sent a cease and desist letter to TrackMania Exchange, ordering that the website stop the sales of the fullspeed merchandise, as they believed that this violated their trademark on the term FullSpeed. Trackmania Exchange did not comply with this, as they believed that their use of the term was far enough removed from PepsiCo's use that it did not violate their trademark. After it became clear that Trackmania Exchange would not stop the sale of the merchandise, PepsiCo opened the case to attempt to force them to stop the sales. 
Most experts believed that due to the distance between the use of the FullSpeed trademark by PepsiCo (that being of on an energy drink) and that of Trackmania Exchange's use of the fullspeed term (that of a racing map style), PepsiCo would end up losing the case. However, the jury ended up voting in favour of PepsiCo, and TrackMania Exchange was forced to return all the money they made from the sales of the specified merchandise.
== Bribery Scandal ==
The month after the case closed, one of the members of the jury revealed to a local magazine that PepsiCo had offered them a bribe to vote in favour of their case (although this particular member declined it). The accusation was severe - if they were true, then the case would have to be overruled and there would need to be an investigation into the company's management. After an investigation, the French government quickly found that over half of the jury had been bribed, meaning that the result was effectively a sham. The result was overruled, meaning TrackMania Exchange could begin selling their fullspeed merchandise again.
An investigation into the European branch of PepsiCo was held to investigate who was responsible for the bribing. After a quick investigation, 7 members of the branch's management was found to be responsible, although their names were not publicised. They were quietly removed from their positions in the company, and their current situations are not known to the public.
== Aftermath ==
TrackMania Exchange continues to use fullspeed imagery in their merchandise, although the exact shirt in question were not put back on sale. The originals are highly sought after amongst fans of the style, and some of the best players have been known to wear them.
The FullSpeed drink was put off sale in Western Europe, as the bad publicity greatly affected sales there. In Eastern Europe, however, the scandal was not widely reported on, and it remains popular there.