The Explorers Club, a century-old organization that promotes scientific exploration, has won a highly unusual court order blocking the international liquor giant Diageo plc from selling a line of whiskeys called the Johnnie Walker Explorers’ Club Collection. The ruling is a victory for the Explorers Club’s lawyers at Boies, Schiller & Flexner, who faced off against counsel for Diageo at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan.
In a ruling issued on Monday, New York Supreme Court Justice Charles Ramos in Manhattan ruled that Diageo’s Explorers’ Club line violates Section 135 of the New York General Business Law, a seldom invoked statute barring companies from using a charity’s name to deceive the public. Ramos wrote that he’ll enter an injunction barring Diageo from selling the whiskey—the only form of relief available under the law and the first injunction of its kind in 50 years.
