Cerveceria Costa Rica (Magic Hat) Suing West Sixth Brewing

If they think that they are the related products then Magic hat should be thanking West Sixth instead of suing them

 

You are skipping over the Magic Hat side of things. Magic Hat refused to allow them to use the six (which magic hat doesnt have a trademark on) alone in the future. Why are you leaving that part out of the timeline?

Why has the "spin" worked on me. Because I didnt need any spin. Ive been looking at their logo for a year now and have never confused it with Magic Hat so I didnt see the need for them to negotiate at all.

Im thinking you have never negotiated anything. Sometimes offers get pulled off the table from one proposal to the next. When I was selling my condo last decade, I got a lowball offer, it wasnt acceptable, I wasnt going to take it, but I didnt have a problem with someone starting there. I might have been desperate to sell (I wasnt, I was going to get "full value" or not move) so good effort on their part. I made a reasonable counteroffer, they move up 1k AND wanted my to include appliances. I thought that was a bitch move to not make a reasonable counteroffer, so my next offer I agreed on the appliances and raised the price back to my original listed price. It was a good faith offer. I was letting them know I wasnt budging much off my original price. If they had come back after that with something 2k under my lowest offer + the appliances I would have taken it. In fact, that is about what I sold it for eventually, but not to them.

In a case like this, a lot depends on whether you trust in your case or not. If West 6th thinks they will win in court, then hardball negotiation tactics are fine. Offer a little but if the other side doesnt take it all, then pull stuff off the table. If Magic Hat had accepted in totality letter 1 or letter 2, then things would have ended. But they had other issues beside the star.

I dont understand why you are focusing on the star so much since that isnt even part of Magic Hat's trademark. That is far from a defining issue.

 

According to twitter last night, Fest of Ale, a beer festival in Clarksville, Indiana next weekend has pulled Magic Hat from the lineup.

 

Because the star shows that they plagiarized the logo. Trademark or no trademark on the star is a legal issue, which can be solved in the court case. But this is the court of public opinion, and in the court of public opinion the star shows they are guilty as charged!

As far as your story of the condo sale, the equivalent would be half way through the negotiations after everybody has put time in coming up with offers and counteroffers, you just said " nah on second thought I'm just not gonna sell the place." Which isn't necessarily a problem, but it shows that compromise on the condo price (or in this case the label art)l is not possible. West Sixth said they are not going to change the label. If compromise is not possible on the label then Magic Hat has to resort to legal matters to defend their brand.

When it comes down to it, the labels are too similar to remain the same whether or not they blatantly copied it. Some simple changes would have done the trick. Why would they want to use the 6 alone without saying West Sixth brewing? That is such a simple compromise. They are going about this the most ass backwards childish way possible. Posting Magic Hat logos crossed out on their website etc are only going to help Magic Hats case. When I first looked at it seemed MAgic Hat was in the wrong but after going over everything they basically have no other choice.

Hopefully Magic Hat can legally force them to change their label, and also get some compensation for any damage this has done to their brand.

 

Boycott time.

Also on the boycott list:
-Ska brewing for suing DuClaw over Euforia
-Troegs (half boycott) for suing Bethlehem Brewworks over Rude Elf's Reserver (after they were already made a change from Rudolph's Reserve, can't get no break)

Sigh, I did not keep my boycott with Troegs unfortunately. It's a lot easier to boycott shitty breweries.

 

I agree, If West Sixth was in my area, I would definitely boycott them. I don't drink much Magic Hat but this whole thing is making me want to. Just to support what is right, trying to compromise in business, which many business do every day. Defending what is rightfully yours! They tried to go about it the easy way, but were forced by West Sixths lack of willingness to compromise, and complete disregard for general business ethics, to go about it the hard way.

 

So no one can use an 8 pointed star ever again?

While I think its the most similar part of the design, its really not even that. If you realize its a compass and not a star, its less so (which I didnt realize until this started). The West 6th compass is symmetrical, while the Magic Hat star is all tilty and asymmetrical.

A friend of mine had the best change suggestion I have heard. Put a tiny N, E, S on those directional points on the compass, leaving off the W, as the 6 is in the place the W should be (and much larger). That makes the compass more compassy and less starry.

I still think that anyone who was familiar with two Magic Hat logos would never confuse this for theirs, as Magic Hat logos are always psychedelic.

 

Wait I'm confused, isn't Magic Hat the bad guy in this situation for bullying West Sixth over something that has no effect on Magic Hat's business?

 

Magic Hat does not own the number 6.

You think it is ethical to refer to a six as an "inverted nine" as Magic Hat did repeatedly? I dont.

Heck, Magic Hat doesnt own the number 9. They own "#9". I think someone else using a nine in a logo as long as they dont use the # sign and dont use a swirly background and maybe use a square logo around it would be fine. But Im not a court of law.

 

read the entire thread and the letters posted and links and decide for yourself. After reading everything I think just the opposite is true

 

Okay I will read and then boycott someone. I need to boycott someone!!!!

 

Anyone defending Magic Hat want to explain the South Carolina part of the lawsuit?

Doesnt that suggest that Magic Hat is at least a little bit clueless?

 

Regardless of how dumb each brewery has acted during this thing, one thing seems certain to me. These labels are not the same. This should not have even been an issue in the first place.

And to those stating that this was blatent plagiarism and the designer was awful; the logo contains a compass (West), a 6 (Sixth), and a circle (pretty common no?). That seems pretty damn original to me...

 

It doesn't look like a compass it looks like a star, and more specifically exactly like magic hats star. No, I wouldn't have a problem with another label useing an 8 pointed star as long as the other label didn't have other similarities as well. You admitted yourself you couldn't tell it was a compass. Your idea of making it look more like a compass is a very good one, and one that was discussed in the letters back and forth between the two companies. However, West Sixth has said they refuse to change their labels, which would mean a compromise on the compass or any other portion of the label is out of the question. This makes legal action the only option.

 

It looks like a compass once you are told it is a compass. But yeah, it looks like a star. However it is far from "exactly" like Magic Hats star. While all 8 pointed stars are similar, in the category of 8 pointed stars they are about as different as possible. And if you are going for a compass, you are going to use an 8 pointed star with 4 large points and 4 small points.

I remember the first time I saw their tap handle, I asked what the "six star" beer was. Oh, west sixth! Why the star on the logo? The star confused me, but I never once thought it was a Magic Hat beer, because it clearly didnt have a Magic Hat vibe to it (and the place I saw this sometimes carries Magic Hat #9 on tap).

 

Whether or not you believe that West Sixth is being childish in how they've handled this situation, the bottom line is that Magic Hat pursuing this trademark "infringement" AT ALL is bullying.

Suggesting that West Sixth is "bullying" Magic Hat by being difficult to negotiate with is a bit of a mischaracterization.

 

Repeated and bolded for emphasis.

 

You can also take a look at the logo on a t-shirt or a coaster.

 

Are you exaggerating for effect? Because I can explain the differences between the two stars with just words. That's how distinct they are.

Magic Hat's consists of 8 equal-length points, has been skewed/stretched to give it a distorted look (i.e., not symmetrical), and consists of a light yellow color on an orange background.

West Sixth's consists of 4 long points alternating with 4 short points and has no skewing (i.e., is symmetrical top-to-bottom and left-to-right), and consists of white on a dark blue-green background.

The *only* similarity between the two stars is the fact that they have 8 points. And like a few others have noted already, I didn't even know #9 *had* a star in their logo until this lawsuit came to light. I'd say at the very least, the fact that Magic Hat didn't include the star in their federal trademark application combined with the fact that it's not even a well-known part of that mark makes it a little absurd for that to be the sticking point of this dispute.