Cerveceria Costa Rica (Magic Hat) Suing West Sixth Brewing

Then right in the middle of negotiations in February, West Sixth releases this label for their Amber with no change to the star and an even more similar design of the MH label due to the color scheme chosen.

 

I could be wrong, but the last letter before the lawsuit/letter saying MH was planning to sue was West Sixth saying they would agree upon three of the four requested changes. I'm not legal expert, but I think that constitutes counter-offering. You seem to be condemning West Sixth while at the same time cheering Magic Hat for the same actions (offering/counter-offering each other).

Also, do people not read? I'd think that the big "West Sixth Brewing" on the label would make it quite clear that it's not a Magic Hat product, but I guess that's me being a bit too logical. Just a pet peeve. Carry on.

 

It includes all the elements they promised in their last compromise offer. The words "WEST SIXTH" are right there on the can as part of the logo.

 

Um no.

 

1. W6 will remove star or change its design to make it clear its a compass and not a starburst."

No change to the star element.

 

Um yes.

It is more similar in one important way, as the number is in the middle of the circle, just like the 9.

 

LAST offer.

In the last offer, they had pulled that off the table, it was no longer part of the compromise being offered.

 

Lemme guess: All of you confusing West Sixth with Magic Hat #9 are the same kind of people that confuse Austria and Australia.

 

Interesting that the person who make that image concluded that they were 'close' and that the W6 logo was inspired by MH. I don't think those forts are 'radically different' and you do admit they are within the same font family and because of that they are much more similar than they are different. If W6 would have chosen a different font family, this probably would not have been an issue. And now a similar color scheme with their amber......

 

Seriously, you are giving your wife/girlfriend absolutely zero credit for being intelligent. Also, I think that if JUST these two cans were sitting next to each other on the shelf, there might be some cause for thinking that, but most likely, #9 will have other Magic Hat brands near it and West Sixth will have the same, at which point the brand families of the two breweries would become even more distinct.

 

Let's put another shrimp on the barbie!

 

So just to clarify you agree that the racer 5 logo is similar to the magic hat logo because they have a circle around it, but yet you think the west sixth logo and magic hat logo are "radically different"?

 

Im assuming the current color scheme is because the beer is, you know, amber. Although it looks more the scheme for a pumpkin beer to me.

The green scheme for the IPA to represent hops, I guess.

I would guess a dark scheme for a stout or a yellow scheme for a golden ale or, etc, etc.

 

Well then, that's probably part of the reason why MH stopped negotiations.
Not changing the star to something more "compassy" was unacceptable, for both parties.

 

I'm giving all beer unimformed a high liklihood of thinking these 2 cans would come from the same company.

 

I think the Racer 5 is radically different too, but any idiot who confused the 6 and 9 logos would also confuse the 5 logo.

I was using another example to prove a point. Number in a circle isnt defining enough to cause a problem. And anyway, the West Sixth number isnt in the circle, its part of the circle.

 

I'm focusing on the star because that was the one clear example of one side making a radical backwards move in the negotiations. Listing Magic Hat's progression of offers is less interesting, because it's nothing but a steady series of concessions toward a compromise:

Letter #1: Immediately stop using the entire logo, and pay us royalties for profits to this point.
Letter #2: Within 30 days stop using the star and the 6 without lettering.
Letter #3: Keep using existing stock until it needs to be replaced (and then replace it with redesigned merchandise) except for the 6 without lettering if it's not in close proximity to West Sixth signage.

If we break down the demands into their constituent parts, Magic Hat originally asked for a total package that included everything:

A - stop using star
B - stop using 6 without lettering outside the brewery
C - stop using 6 without lettering in the brewery
D - stop using 6 with lettering
E - pay royalties

At first West Sixth agreed to A and rejected the rest. Then Magic Hat accepted the offer of A and reciprocated by dropping demands E and D. West Sixth then reaffirmed their agreement with A, and offered to accept B as well. Magic Hat finally offered a compromise on C in which West Sixth could keep using their existing stuff without lettering, provided it was kept in a non-confusing environment. Since this includes, based on their pictures, relatively permanent items like tap handles and taster trays, this all but amounted to a concession on C as well.

How did West Sixth respond to this compromise? By retracting their original offer of accepting A, which in effect also amounted to a negation of Magic Hat's offer to retract their demand of D - since they only offered to let the can designs keep the 6 provided they used lettering and lost the star. The star, as West Sixth's very first offer, formed the cornerstone upon which all subsequent negotiations were built - it was consistently bullet point #1 in letters from both sides. Once they rescinded that initial gesture toward compromise, nothing was left.

To keep with your personal anecdote of negotiations, Magic Hat played your role and West Sixth that of the lowballer: You/MH made an initial offer asking for more than you expected to get; Asshole/W6 made a lowball counteroffer; You/MH responded by knocking off a significant portion of your asking price; Asshole/W6 pulled a dick move of offering one concession (i.e., raise offer by 1k/stop using 6 without letters outside brewery) but accompanied it with an unreasonable demand (i.e., include appliances/approve artwork without having seen it). So far there's a clear parallel. At this point, though, things differ, since you responded by reverting to your original asking price while Magic Hat actually continued to concede more by agreeing to let West Sixth keep using 6 w/out letter stuff in their taproom. Then, your jerk left negotiations...and effectively so did West Sixth, since they completely took back their original counteroffer - it would be like if the person you were negotiating with went back to their original price AND wanted the appliances.

Basically, in the negotiation you described you acted less generously than Magic Hat and the other party acted less bitchily than West Sixth. Obviously you can claim that your original asking price was reasonable and Magic Hat's original list of demands was not (and I'm not that even inclined to disagree with you if you do), but when it comes to the actual maneuvers of negotiating it's pretty clear that it was West Sixth who failed to act in good faith.

P.S. My reference to you buying West Sixth's spin was mainly based on your erroneous suggestion that they had been offering to change the star design "up until yesterday," which clearly ignored their refusal to do so in their final letter. You also seem to have a different take on the 6 issue, in that you seem to think that Magic Hat was insisting that West Sixth agree never to use the 6 without lettering again; all they said was that they couldn't promise not to complain if the issue arose in the future. West Sixth wasn't willing to stipulate that Magic Hat owned the rights to the number 6, and Magic Hat wasn't willing to give up their right to revisit the issue of consumer confusion. This struck me as a case where they could just agree to disagree again in the future, but that shouldn't have had any real bearing on the current attempt to find a compromise for West Sixth's redesigns. Basically, it was just W6's lawyers saying "we'll do what you want, but we won't admit you're right," and MH's lawyers responding, "great, but if you stop doing what we want we won't agree not to complain." Seemed fair enough to me.

 

Only if they cant read.

I would think the one comes from West Sixth and the other from Magic Hat because I can read.

And I would think that Racer 5 comes from Bear Republic for the same reason.

The assumption that "all bears with a numeral come from same brewery" is weird. Why would anyone assume that?

 

That's a Schwarzenegger quote isn't it?