Cerveceria Costa Rica (Magic Hat) Suing West Sixth Brewing

However, it would not be weird to assume that all bears, with or without numerals, came from the woods...

 

After reading all of the posts in this thread, it has become painfully clear to me that there are many (butchered) legal arguments being made by BAs who are not lawyers, but who play lawyers on TV BeerAdvocate.

 

To the average consumer (i.e. not on BA) if the products were placed next to each other in a crowded beer cooler would be perceived as being produced by the same brewer. As much as West 6th denies it, SOMEONE, was influenced by MH design when the logo was conceived. Images are easy to trademark as opposed to words and you need to do your due diligence before you produce something. New England Brewing had an issue with Imprrial Stout Trooper, it had nothing to do with the name or the font (exact same as Star Wars), but the Stormtrooper image on the bottle caused the problem with Lucasfilm.

 

I really don't care anymore. The whole thing is silly. I only hope West 6th "prevails" to the point they aren't put out of business. Mostly because the beer world is much better off with their product than Magic Hat's.

 

I was hoping the HP Magic Hat would make it disappear. I like West 6th Beer.

 

west sixth sound like bro's.

I hate bro's...

edit: Never had a beer from either company and now I really could care less. Although I will say this made me aware of west sixth which I wasn't before.

 

West Sixth is a good brewery, but the people that designed their logo probably didnt do their due dillegence and now WS is paying for it. I have read almost everything I can on this, and I still think that MH is bullying. However, West Sixth producing Amber hurt their case. Not only does the can look more like #9 but the beer sucks so it could be easily confused with a magic hat brew.

West Sixth is ditrributed in a very small footprint and most of the people that would be drinking it or magic hat would know the diefference, and I dont see how anyone can get the logos confused.

 

I completely agree. The "famous" quality is the most difficult point to argue for most dilution claims. That is critical to having that claim stick. I'm really surprised the star wasn't cited.

 

I thought you were a fanboy before, but reserved judgment. Now after you cited that Bear Republic Racer 5 should be lumped into this discussion proves that. Nobody in their right mind would confuse the two, and no lawyer would consider action against Bear Republic because no jury or judge with the gift of sight would see those marks as similar.

I guess you said Racer 5 because taking action against them is as ridiculous as taking action against West Sixth? Because a 6 isn't a 9, it's a 6? While I appreciate the sarcasm, it doesn't prove anything.

 

If you truly believe the logos or marks are so different as to make this suit ridiculous, allow me to cite another true life court case.

World Wide Fund for Nature is still the WWF today because the legal system in the UK determined the World Wrestling Federation infringed on their marks. This happened in 2002. True this was the UK and not the US, but I feel it's still relevant.

Two completely different businesses - well one business and one not-for-profit - in different markets with different mission statements with completely different logos. And yet, the court sided with the Nature fund and Federation needed to be changed to Entertainment.

Edit: yes there was a prior legal agreement in place between Titan Sports and the Fund about the use of the WWF initials which was said to have been violated in 2002. That just shows how insanely specific and ridiculous companies and individuals need to be when considering their marks. No one in their right mind would confuse the two, yet each company's legal team sought to put this agreement in place to remove all doubt. And the courts enforced it. Madness.

 

I vacation in Costa Rica and have consumed many Cerveceria Costa Rican Beers, they are shit but that is pretty much all there is. Pilsen and Imperials.

 

Just because they own Magic Hat, does not mean that Magic Hat brews garbage.

If we drop the bias against MH for a minute, we can see that MH is just doing what any other company would do, even if we find it frivolous as BAs.

If you want ridiculous though, you should see what Hansens and Monster Energy tried to do to Rock Art and the Vermonster. The logos weren't similar, the beverages were as far apart as they could be but it did not stop Hansens from trying to sue the shit out of Rock Art.

 

Just a little Xenophobia thrown into the controversy for good measure.

Sept. 26, 2012 - first letter from Magic Hat's "fancy" New York (well, "Rochester, NY" anyway ) law firm, HSE
Oct. 26, 2012 - KPS Capital Partners To Sell North American Breweries To Cerveceria Costa Rica, S.A.

 

Pilsen and Imperial are shit, basically Budweiser. Said nothing about MH in my post.

 

Because magic hat's lawyers are that good or because a jury is going to be so stupid they don't know base 10 numbers?

 

Keep in mind based on what's being said the confusion is that the consumer would think they were buying a Magic hat #9, not just any other Magic Hat product.

 

No, they asked for them to change it, run all changes by them, change all marketing materials over night, and give them all profits the company made for a year (or at least an accounting of them so a settlement of lost profits could be assessed). This means this company feels that this logo was not just using their concepts but COST them money directly. As in people bought west six instead of magic hat #9.

 

You think west six has the money for a graphic designer? LOL. Talk about being a snob!

As the labels looks nothing alike I"m not sure where you're coming from and to be honest I doubt anyone in Kentucky not part of the beer world had ever seen the magic hat lable till about the time west six came to be since they didn't send their beer here and it being awful and I mean awful beer...who'd have gone out of their way to try it?

Now I'm not saying West Six makes good beer as their IPA is at best a 3.0 on the beer advocate scoring system which is better than magic hat #9 a clear 1.1 at best.

 

Somebody got paid for that design...it didn't pop on the cans out of nowhere.
Either way this brouhaha works out..West 6th wins. Until this debacle, NOBODY has ever heard of them, now everyone knows of them. Good job West 6th. No such thing as bad press, huh?

 

Eh...given how limited their distribution is and that they have just recently added their second canned beer and that they sell far more of their beer in their market than magic hat does...I don't see how this has helped. And again they make below average beer...something hopefully someday magic hat can live up to.

They paid someone to make the logo....someone in kentucky who most likely didn't know what magic hat was. This however is a major difference from what you implied.

Either way the logos look nothing alike. This is a petty legal suit and your stupid comments are just that.