Big Sky Brewing sues A-B over slogan

I am amazed that a phase that is not a proper name got trademarked. I love to see the trial transcripts as in any news story its always missing many facts...

I not on either side, just curious.

 

a.) the commercials are funny. b.) I like Jim Halpert. c.) I still won't drink bud light, bud or AB products if I don't have to...which I don't on to some Solemn Oath...

 

Why are people surprised that Big Sky trademarked a phrase?

Taglines are part of branding just the same way logos are. Unless there is some aspect to trademark law that I am unaware of, I would think slogans/taglines are fair game, no?

 

It's the particular phrase in question that has me scratching my head. I think I might register the phrase 'hang on a minute I gotta take a piss.'

People say that all the time, I'll make a fortune!

 

It may be stupid, but its theirs. Just like I cringe at drinking a beer named moose drool, but it is tasty when I forget that part.

It just is man, it just is.

 

It's not about whether people say or use the phrase all the time. It's about whether or not the phrase is being used to market a product.

You are welcome to trademark "hang on a minute I gotta take a piss", but...

1) someone else would have to use it to sell something for it to potentially violate your trademark, AND
2) YOU would actually have to be using the phrase to successfully earn a trademark for it, I believe.

You can't just trademark and sit on a phrase in hopes that someone will use it and then sue them for monetary compensation. You actually have to be using it as a mark of your trade. Hence the name.

 

Good point, I suppose that's one of the differences between a TM and a copyright. I'm not certain that you've got to be using it, but you're right, the violator has to be using the TM'd material in an attempt to make money.

 

I felt the exact same way, didn't even want to try it many years back, but the brew-master convinced me and I was pleasantly surprised -- just have to block out the image around the title.

 

That phrase has been around for awhile. I know it as part of a joke(maybe Jeff Foxworthy as referenced earlier in the thread) about the famous last words of many a redneck, or woodchuck (if you live in upstate NY)!

 

"Hold My Beer and Watch This" doesn't seem to jive with craft beer culture.

Maybe - "I'm Setting My Beer Here Don't Touch It"

Or - "I'd Try That Ridiculously Dangerous Stunt But I'm Currently Enjoying This Dunkelweizen And Can't Be Bothered"

 

Wait, wait, wait...I was saying that back in 80's.

 

You presume the marketing people even ran the slogan past legal. (Which I doubt.)

 

I hope AB loses in court. A year and a half ago, they levied a cease and desist on a small Columbus, OH brewery before they had a line on a bright tank. "Born Brewing" was supposed to be the name, and apparently AB had some rights to the word "born" in regards to the beer world. The brewery obviously wanted nothing to do with both AB and that name after finding out, and has since been renamed to Seventh Son Brewing Company. Cranking out high quality beers in their first year, it would have been a shame if the matter had gone further.

AB/Inbev has such a bad taste in their mouth due to all this delicious craft beer flooding the market. I've watched three major craft breweries land in Ohio since (2 being New Belgium and Deschutes), and neither wants to go the house that distributes Bud Light. It's a sheer volume game for everybody, but if you can't have a Fat Tire or Black Butte in the hand of every consumer in the area, then they really could care less about you. And let's hope this trend continues. The craft brewers need to remain steadfast, adhere to the artisanal aspect of craft beer, and grow organically like the movement and great, local breweries have been doing for years.

 

You missed my third post above -- no presumption.

 

Not the first time A-B has "borrowed" an idea from a smaller brewery:

 

Born On dates.

 

I thought Big Sky's catch phrase was: Hold my Ivan and watch this... cuz that's the only beer they brew worth drinking. Sorry, but this petty shit is just gettin ridiculous.

 

If this was the opposite way, everyone would be ripping AB.

 

^^^^ This.

This phrase was part of a redneck joke in North Dakota concerning what one North Dakotan says to his/her passenger when they are out driving around in the winter time. I heard it in the early 1990's when I lived in Fargo.