Philly’s oldest wine school didn’t prove a competitor violated its trademark, judge rules

Philadelphia’s oldest wine school couldn’t prove that a competitor violated its trademark during what it called a deliberate cyberbullying campaign, a federal judge ruled Wednesday. The allegations, the ruling determined, amounted to little more than sour grapes.

District Judge Joshua Wolson denied PhillyWine LLC’s request to prohibit Keith Wallace and Alana Zerbe, the husband-and-wife duo behind the Wine School of Philadelphia, from using the name Philly Wine School.

Wallace obtained a trademark for the name “Philly Wine School” in December, which court records show Wallace used to get PhillyWine’s Instagram account suspended and attempt to take down its website. PhillyWine filed a lawsuit in federal court in Philadelphia in February alleging Wallace and Zerbe “made it their mission to destroy” PhillyWine “by attempting to erase its existence” from the internet.

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The dispute over the name “Philly Wine School” had wreaked havoc on PhillyWine’s ability to communicate with its students, the lawsuit argued, and led to confusion that resulted in at least one negative review meant for its competitor. Attendance and enrollment at PhillyWine — which now has a permanent residency at Rittenhouse Square’s Fitler Club — has been down since December, the school’s co-owner Matt Kirkland previously told the Inquirer.

“I think there needs to be clarity in naming and clarity for students so they sign up for the classes they think they’re signing up for,” Kirkland said in February. He declined to comment on the ruling.

PhillyWine’s suit was accompanied by a now-rejected injunction request that asked the judge to order Wallace and Zerbe to stop using the “Philly Wine School” name and withdraw trademark complaints submitted to Instagram and other platforms, such as their website host Squarespace.

Wolson recognized the harm to PhillyWine from losing its Instagram account, but ultimately concluded the school did not prove it has a longstanding association with the name “Philly Wine School” or that the Wine School’s actions would cause widespread confusion.

The phrase in question, Wolson noted, is merely descriptive, a geography strung together with an explanation of the services offered.

“‘Philly’ denotes Philadelphia. ‘Wine’ identifies the subject matter. ‘School’ describes the nature of the service that PhillyWine offers,” Wolson wrote in Wednesday’s opinion. “Put together, the phrase conveys an immediate idea of a wine school located in Philadelphia.”

Wallace, who had previously called PhillyWine’s lawsuit tantamount to bullying, said Wolson’s decision was “a huge win.”

“The judge really reiterated everything that I thought was going on,” said Wallace. “I’m very thankful for that.”

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The two wine schools had coexisted generally peacefully until recently, according to the February lawsuit.

Initially named after its founder Neil Ewing, PhillyWine was founded in 1999 as “Neil Ewing Wine Services.” It hosted roving classes in accordance with curriculum from the Wine & Spirits Education Trust, a nonprofit that sets international standards for alcoholic beverage education.

When Ewing retired in 2022, he sold the business to Kirkland, a retired surgeon, and Kirkland’s business parnter Noelle Allen, a former banking executive. To date, PhillyWine is the only school in the tri-state area — and one of 47 globally — accredited to teach the trust’s full diploma, which Kirkland and Allen have leveraged to form partnerships with Drexel and James Madison universities.

Wallace, however, started offering wine tastings and semester-long sommelier courses in 2001 under the name the Wine School of Philadelphia, which opened a brick-and-mortar at 109 S. 22nd St in 2015. Wallace’s classes follow a different curriculum that he said he designed for a “larger clientele” of wine enthusiasts and aspiring sommeliers alike.

Despite serving similar customers, PhillyWine identified “no evidence of conflict [or] confusion,” said Wolson, “which undercuts the claim that [Wallace] adopted the phrase to trade on an established mark belonging to PhillyWine.”

The main name PhillyWine used for decades was “Neal Ewing Wine Services,” Wolson noted, and that is how it was identified in industry publications as recently as 2023. The only place where PhillyWine appeared consistently was its web address, said Wolson.

The judge also rejected PhillyWine’s claim that Wallace’s attempts to take down the school’s Instagram, website, and Google Business accounts were in bad faith, since Wallace offered to restore the school’s Instagram account — so long as Kirkland and Allen agreed to stop referring to themselves as the “Philly Wine School” on social media. The pair rejected him.

That offer is still on the table, Wallace said Friday. “That has always been the easiest solution from the very beginning,” he said. “They can have their Instagram followers ... they just can’t use our name.”

Wolson declined to address at this point PhillyWine’s allegations that Wallace obtained the trademark fraudulently, or had misrepresented his credentials.

Wallace’s biography on the Wine School of Philadelphia website previously stated he graduated from University of California Davis‘ esteemed viticulture and enology program and had worked a professional winemaker in the Napa Valley upon graduation.

Neither are true, according to the suit, and The Inquirer could not independently verify that Wallace had attended UC Davis after contacting the school’s registrar.

The accusations, Wallace said, were hard to deal with as they overtook social media. A handful of recently enrolled students at the Wine School of Philadelphia had withdrawn over concerns about Wallace’s reputation after the lawsuit was filed, he said.

Wallace is assessing any financial damages caused by the suit and his school’s subsequent dip in enrollment.

“Not a single person has walked away from one of my classes saying, ‘This guy doesn’t know what he’s talking about,’” Wallace said. “These accusations are just trying to diminish someone who is successful.”