As if the departure of leading man Kevin Costner and the recently resolved WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes hadn’t caused enough disruption to the fifth season of the hugely popular Yellowstone, a legal battle is now being fought between series creator Taylor Sheridan and actor Cole Hauser, who plays cowboy Rip Wheeler.
Hauser recently launched a coffee company, Free Rein, which Sheridan is claiming features a logo which is “confusingly similar” to his own Bosque Ranch coffee brand, named for his estate in North Texas which serves as a filming location for his growing slate of Paramount+ shows. The Bosque Ranch logo features an interlinked B and R, while Free Rein’s branding includes an F and R that overlap in a similar manner.
Bosque Ranch alleges that Free Rein is guilty of “trademark infringement, unfair competition and false advertising” and accuses Hauser’s company of attempting to “mistake or to deceive as to the affiliation, connection, or association” with Bosque Ranch and “irreparably damaging” Sheridan’s brand.
The marketing strategy surrounding both product lines are, admittedly, similar in concept, and lean into the earthy Americana sensibilities of the show that made Yellowstone such a hit.
“One thing as essential to the Cowboy as his boots and saddle is coffee,” reads Bosque Ranch’s promotional material. “It is our fuel. Bosque Ranch Craft Coffee is bold yet smooth, and meant to be sipped all day. And sometimes all night.”
Meanwhile, Free Rein, which launched three months after Bosque Ranch, is “for the cowboy in all of us,” and includes specific product names like “American Dirt” and “Heavy Spur.”
And they’re not the only ones. Yellowstone star Kevin Costner, who recently departed the series to focus on his own two-volume Civil War epic Horizon, also has his own coffee called Horizon Blend, which also features marketing materials which feature the great outdoors and cowboy imagery.
Philip Ellis is News Editor at Men’s Health, covering fitness, pop culture, sex and relationships, and LGBTQ+ issues. His work has appeared in GQ, Teen Vogue, Man Repeller and MTV, and he is the author of Love & Other Scams.
