Dr. Dre and liquor company Drinks America announced their collaboration for Aftermath Cognac and Aftermath Sparkling Vodka at the beginning of August as a promotional vehicle for Dre’s long awaited “Detox” album. Now, a London alcohol company that distributes their own sparkling vodka called 02 is yelling “copycat!” to Dre’s sparkling vodka.

Philip Maitland, the President of International English Distillers Ltd which holds the patent to¬†O2 Sparkling Vodka said “I am very complimented that Dr. Dre has recognized how innovative and special our sparkling vodka is and is trying to copy it. My concern is that it isn‚Äôt produced by our patented method and may well turn out to be a very poor imitation ‚Ķ I hope that consumers will not be swayed by the celebrity endorsement of a copycat product by Dr. Dre. There are a lot of mixed messages going on, Dre‚Äôs unreleased album is even called Detox to ad a bitterly ironic twist.‚Äù

Clearly Maitland has no legal bounds to stop Dre’s own version of sparkling vodka. Dre and Drinks America have no intention of copying 02 but rather will have their own process and Maitland doesn’t own the rights to sparkling vodka, he just owns the patent for his 02 process. Regardless, current plans for the Aftermath Cognac and Sparkling Vodka are tentative at best due to recent rumblings that “Detox” might not hit the market in time for his coming Holiday season. At least we will have an Eminem album though. Source: The Hip Hop Chronicle