Appleton glassware company BenShot gets over $3 million in lawsuit

After a four-year legal battle, Appleton glassware company BenShot has been awarded more than $3.15 million in damages after suing a company selling similar products that was falsely claiming they were made in the United States.

In an Oct. 17 verdict, a jury in the U.S. District Court of Eastern Wisconsin in Green Bay said Lucky Shot USA and its parent company, 2 Monkey, owed $3,159,976 in damages to BenShot.

BenShot is a father-son-owned company that creates and sells drinking glasses with objects embedded in the side. Ben Wolfgram and his father Bruce started the company in 2015, making shot glasses with bullets in the side in Bruce's 300-square-foot garage. After the project led to sales, Ben, who was living in Philadelphia and owned a robotics company, moved back to Wisconsin so they could work on the business full-time.

In late 2016, the Wolfgrams discovered that Lucky Shot USA and 2 Monkey were selling similar bullet-embedded shot glasses. Ben Wolfgram said he sent the owner, Douglas Ingalls, a cease-and-desist letter, saying BenShot owned intellectual property of the shot glass design.

Ben Wolfgram said his company considered suing Ingalls at that time, but didn't have the finances.

But as time passed, Wolfgram said Ingalls' companies continued to sell the drinking glasses while advertising that they were "made in the USA." In October 2018, BenShot filed a lawsuit against Lucky Shot USA and 2 Monkey.

For BenShot, the advertisement of products that are fully made in the United States, down to all the raw materials, is a major draw for its customers, many of whom are veterans, active military members and people working in law enforcement, Ben Wolfgram said. It's also far more expensive — around 10 times the price, according to Wolfgram — to make the drinking glasses in the United States rather than source them overseas.

"When you put so much passion and energy into something and then, all of a sudden, you see someone that just lies about doing the same thing, just for financial benefit, it's infuriating," Wolfgram said.

In the lawsuit, BenShot contended Ingalls' companies violated the law under the false designation of origin part of the Lanham Act, which is a federal statute regarding trademarks and false advertising, and under unfair competition in Wisconsin common law.

The defendants attempted to argue that, because their products were assembled in the United States using materials made in China, they could be advertised as "Made in USA," according to court documents.

In 2019, in a denial of the defendants' motion to dismiss BenShot's lawsuit against them, Judge William Griesbach noted that the Federal Trade Commission's standard says anything considered "made in the USA" should contain no more than a "negligible" amount of materials made overseas.

The lawsuit experience was new for Ben Wolfgram, who said he had never previously stepped foot in a courtroom. But he said it was an important battle to fight — especially because BenShot's local creation of drinking glasses has a positive community impact.

Every quarter, BenShot invites local veterans to gather together at the company's workshop in Appleton for some food and fellowship, and to create their own drinking glasses. With high rates of veteran depression and suicide, Ben Wolfgram said it's important for veterans to have a community. The most recent gathering was Wednesday night.

"It's all people that didn't know each other before this. They come in strangers, and they leave with another person they can talk to," Wolfgram said. "They make their own glasses and we ship them off to them the next day. ... it's this kind of community. You can't do that if everything's made overseas."

Ben Wolfgram said he's not expecting Lucky Shot USA and 2 Monkey to pay the damages — he thinks the companies will instead file for bankruptcy.

"It wasn't about money, never was," Wolfgram said. "It's nice that it was awarded to us and hopefully that will deter other companies from doing similar things. But we'll see."

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Contact Kelli Arseneau at (920) 213-3721 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @ArseneauKelli.