There is no Cierra Mist lawsuit. No court filing, trademark opposition, or settlement between TikTok creator Cierra Mistt and PepsiCo exists in any public record, and PepsiCo discontinued Sierra Mist in January 2023 because of years of weak sales, not because it lost a legal fight to an influencer.1Tech and Media Law. Sierra Mist Trademark2Stemer Law. No, Pepsi Was Not Forced to Change the Name of Sierra Mist After Trademark Clash With Influencer Cierra Mist
Where the Rumor Came From
The story took off in 2023, just as PepsiCo was announcing that Sierra Mist would be replaced by a new lemon-lime soda called Starry. A tidy narrative circulated on TikTok and Twitter: PepsiCo sent Cierra Mistt a cease-and-desist over her username, she discovered the company had let its trademark lapse, she filed her own trademark, turned down a multimillion-dollar buyout, and forced the rebrand. Some versions added a secret settlement.3Lawsuit Zone. Cierra Mist Lawsuit
The timing did the work. PepsiCo really was killing off Sierra Mist, Cierra Mistt really was a popular creator with a nearly identical name, and headlines like “TikToker Forces Pepsi to Rebrand After Lawsuit” wrote themselves.3Lawsuit Zone. Cierra Mist Lawsuit
What the Records Actually Show
Searches of federal court dockets and U.S. Patent and Trademark Office filings turn up nothing. There is no lawsuit, no opposition proceeding, and no settlement between Cierra Mistt and PepsiCo.1Tech and Media Law. Sierra Mist Trademark Trademark attorney Sarah Stemer confirmed that PepsiCo still holds multiple valid trademark registrations for “Sierra Mist” and that no trademark registrations or applications exist under the name “Cierra Mist.”2Stemer Law. No, Pepsi Was Not Forced to Change the Name of Sierra Mist After Trademark Clash With Influencer Cierra Mist
Cierra Mistt herself claimed in TikTok videos that she received a cease-and-desist letter from PepsiCo and that the company’s “copyright” on the name had lapsed.4NameStormers. Sierra Mist-Information: Trademarks, Copyrights, and Fact-Checking That phrasing gives away the confusion. Brand names are protected by trademark law, not copyright law; the two are entirely separate legal regimes.5USPTO. Trademark, Patent, or Copyright And a cease-and-desist letter, if one was in fact sent, is a routine step companies use to police their marks. It is not a lawsuit, and it is not an admission that the company has lost anything.1Tech and Media Law. Sierra Mist Trademark
Cierra Mistt never confirmed any legal contact with PepsiCo in interviews, and reportedly treated the rumors as entertaining rather than serious. The attention grew her following. PepsiCo never mentioned her in any communication about the transition to Starry.3Lawsuit Zone. Cierra Mist Lawsuit
Why a Trademark Claim Would Not Have Worked Anyway
One older Sierra Mist registration filed in 2001 was cancelled in 2013 after a routine renewal filing lapsed.6Trademarkia. Sierra Mist – Trademark Registration That is the grain of truth the rumor latches onto. But PepsiCo holds additional live registrations for the mark, and the expiration of one filing does not erase rights in a name a company has used continuously for more than two decades.1Tech and Media Law. Sierra Mist Trademark
Trademark protection is also category-specific. Cierra Mistt works in entertainment and social media; Sierra Mist is a beverage. Because they operate in different product categories, there was no realistic basis for a trademark infringement claim to run in either direction.3Lawsuit Zone. Cierra Mist Lawsuit
The Real Reason PepsiCo Retired Sierra Mist
Sierra Mist launched in 1999 and went national in 2003 as PepsiCo’s answer to Sprite.7KeepOnHome. Sierra Mist Rebrand Starry Over the next two decades the brand went through a series of reformulations and name changes that likely confused shoppers more than they attracted them:
- 2010: rebranded as “Sierra Mist Natural,” switching from high-fructose corn syrup to real sugar.
- 2013: dropped “Natural” and added stevia.
- 2016: renamed “Mist Twst,” reverting to high-fructose corn syrup with added real juice.
- 2018: returned to the Sierra Mist name.
None of it moved the needle. By 2022, Sierra Mist held about 0.1 percent of the overall U.S. soda market8Bevi. History of Starry Soda3Lawsuit Zone. Cierra Mist Lawsuit9Beverage Digest. The Breeze Episode 2
PepsiCo went with a full reset. Greg Lyons, chief marketing officer for beverages in North America, said at the Starry launch: “With one product dominating the category, consumers deserve another option.”10Honolulu Star-Advertiser. PepsiCo Ends Sierra Mist, Launches Starry to Take on Sprite The company framed Starry as a new product with a new recipe, not a renamed Sierra Mist. Danielle Barbaro, vice president of research and development, described “a game-changing recipe with the perfect balance of lemon lime flavor and sweetness.”11WGN TV. Pepsi Dumps Sierra Mist, Debuts New Lemon-Lime Soda to Compete With Sprite Nothing in PepsiCo’s public explanation involved a trademark dispute.
Who Cierra Mistt Actually Is
Cierra Mistt, born Cierra Huffman on February 24, 1994, in New York, is an American social media personality and former flight attendant.12Sportskeeda Wiki. Who Is Cierra Mistt She built a TikTok following of roughly 3.3 million by late 2023 through content about flight-attendant life, lifestyle, and comedy.13Tuko. Meet Cierra Mistt: Interesting Facts About the Flight Attendant TikTok Star Her connection to the soda begins and ends with the similarity of her screen name. She has no professional relationship with PepsiCo, and there is no record of her holding or having applied for a trademark on “Cierra Mist.”2Stemer Law. No, Pepsi Was Not Forced to Change the Name of Sierra Mist After Trademark Clash With Influencer Cierra Mist