Federal Judge Rejects Bid to Stop Wine School From Using “Philly Wine School”

A précis of Beatrice Forman and Abraham Gutman’s May 29, 2026 article, “Philly’s oldest wine school didn’t prove a competitor violated its trademark, judge rules,” published by The Philadelphia Inquirer.

A federal judge handed the Wine School of Philadelphia what founder Keith Wallace called “a huge win,” rejecting a competitor’s request to prohibit the school from using the name “Philly Wine School.”

U.S. District Judge Joshua Wolson denied PhillyWine LLC’s request for a preliminary injunction against Wallace and Alana Zerbe, the husband-and-wife team behind the Wine School of Philadelphia.

The ruling examined how the two schools had operated in Philadelphia over the years. Wallace founded the Wine School of Philadelphia in 2001 and began offering tastings and semester-long sommelier programs under that name. PhillyWine’s predecessor, meanwhile, operated for decades primarily as “Neal Ewing Wine Services.”

Despite the two organizations serving similar audiences, Wolson found “no evidence of conflict [or] confusion” during their long period of coexistence — evidence that undercut the contention that Wallace adopted “Philly Wine School” to capitalize on an established competitor’s identity.

The judge also rejected PhillyWine’s argument that Wallace acted in bad faith when enforcing the Wine School’s federally registered trademark against competing online uses of the name. The court noted that Wallace had offered to restore PhillyWine’s suspended Instagram presence if its owners stopped using the disputed “Philly Wine School” handle.

“That has always been the easiest solution from the very beginning,” Wallace told The Inquirer. “They can have their Instagram followers. … They just can’t use our name.”

The court did not resolve every allegation in the underlying lawsuit at this stage. But on the immediate question before it — whether the Wine School should be ordered to stop using “Philly Wine School” while the case proceeded — the answer was no.

Wallace described the ruling simply: “The judge really reiterated everything that I thought was going on. I’m very thankful for that.”

Original Article: https://www.inquirer.com/food/drink/philly-wine-school-philadelphia-trademark-lawsuit-update-20260529.html#loaded