Left Hand Brewing seeks to trademark "Nitro"

Could always use the actual word Nitrogen or NCo2

 

I don't think "Nitro" is the name of the stout, since they technically would have three beers named "Nitro":

Milk Stout Nitro
Sawtooth Nitro
Wake Up Dead Nitro

But perhaps that provides some insight as to why they feel the need to trademark the term "Nitro".

 

Pipeworks was asked to stop using the term "ninja" in its beers, but continues to be able to use ninja in their Ninja vs Unicorn. not sure if it is licensed or how they reached that agreement.

i'm not a lawyer but i used to work on the business end of a significant amount of trademark name and patented process licensing. You can license just about anything it seems like. The cost or fee to the licensee is of course negotiable and may be more than nominal

 

Yeah, the "nominal" fee comment was in reference to a situation like Left Hand's cooperation with Oskar Blues.

"Left Hand will continue to be supportive of our craft brew brethren. In fact, we just returned from Oskar Blues, also in Longmont, Colorado and famous for revolutionizing craft beer in cans, where our two founders and employees celebrated the innovation of Oskar Blues’ Old Chub Nitro in the can. Left Hand Brewing will not be pursuing any action against Oskar Blues..."
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and, as I said:

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No it is not

 

Carbonated primarily with nitrogen!

 

Bunch of Jerk Offs. True to brand.

Not missing much here.

 

Honestly, this is just stupid. You cant trademark an entire method of carbonation. How far will they take it? cant put random stuff like Founders Pale or Hop Devil on Nitro anymore? This just seems a bit greedy of them.

Oh wait, Anchor trademarked AN ENTIRE STYLE.

 

This shit is a lawyers wet dream. Imagine if they invested in additional capacity or in developing new beers instead of paying lawyers. It's a waste and a damn shame.

 

- agreement is still in the works, and NvU we keep

- funny you brought us up because our attorney asked us our opinion on the nitro thing two days ago… we were split on it and this one is REALLY tricky

 

If it goes through... other breweries can use this hip version that I'm about to trademark..

NITRO'D

 

Exactly.

 

Milk stout is a style. Are the going to claim exclusive rights to that too? Many breweries make a beer simply called Milk Stout and sometimes they are served with Nitro. LH should have came up with an original name instead of just using a descriptor for the name. This is like trying to trademark Bacon Double Cheeseburger.

 

Trademarks are all words or symbols. Almost everything anyone claims a trademark on is a word

 

you can not trademark a process. that isn't what trademarks are. you are confusing trademarks with patents. they obviously would be unsuccessful if they attempted to patent the process since it was in use before they existed

They just want to be the only guys who can write Nitro on their label. I would think this will be defeated because others have been using the term for a while too.

 

You are right, you can only trademark the word nitro, which is all anyone is trying to do. In much the same way as all anchor has a trademark on is the word "steam beer". Anyone can brew beer with the same process Anchor uses because they don't have a patent on the process and even if they had patented the process the patent would be expired by now.

 

After reading this thread, "Nitro" has begun to sounds just like a mismash of sounds in my head.

 

Yes, but generic words are more trademark-able if they are paired in specific combination under a specific brand umbrella. There are tons of breweries who have a beer called "Pale Ale". Sierra Nevada and Boulevard are just two who come to mind off the top of my head.

You raise a good point--generic words are always risky to trademark because they aren't strong in one of the components (Strength of the Mark) that is applied in the Likelihood of Confusion test that is used in trademark disputes that go all the way to court.

Exactly. Trademark =/= Patent.

Although I still disagree that they should be allowed to trademark just the word "Nitro", since it is common parlance within the industry for "beer that is carbonated with nitrogen". Plus, Nitro isn't really the brand. Milk Stout Nitro (or Sawtooth Nitro or Wake Up Dead Nitro) is the brand.

This would be like Quiznos Sandwich Shop trying to trademark "Sandwich". It would never be allowed because it would place an unreasonable restriction on other businesses trying to use a generic, descriptive term.

 

"We do not wish to halt craft innovation or stop nitro-style beers from being produced or poured. We are simply trademarking the name our bottled beer has become so well known for. We believe another beer named simply, “Nitro” or “Milk Stout Nitro”, would confuse the public and dilute the strength of the brand we have worked so hard to build."

^Mmm yeah, that's baloney. The public is not confused by your brand. If there were a Right Hand Brewing (logo a blue right hand print) or a Left Foot Brewing, etc, then your excuse might hold some weight. The real confusion that exists here is for the majority of beer drinkers (ie, not level 50 BA's) who go into a store and see Left Hand Milk stout being sold along side Left Hand Milk Stout Nitro (for a dollar more). And they have to ask themselves: A) wtf is the difference? B) does it really taste any different? C) is it really worth a dollar more? Sure, I can assume the Nitro is supposed to somehow mimic a nitro pour from a tap. I still don't know for sure without buying it (their sly plan) or researching online. So yeah, the whole trademark thing just comes off as a douche move. The more I think about it, Left Hand is really starting to remind me of our friends at Magic Hat.

 

A friend of mine from college was called Nitro and he has always owned the name. He was very explosive, not smooth at all. Pay the man folks!