Do microbrews trademark their various brands?

Anheuser Busch does a great job of trademarking theirs along with various other brands that no one had the chance to create yet.

(In case you needed another reason to dislike them.)

 

Coronado launched a C&D at Elysian Brewing in Seattle over the Idiot beer.

Lagunitas turned around and pushed Coronado to drop the "Stoopid" from their stout, as Lagunitas had Hop Stoopid tm'd.

 

This was the chicken or egg thing I was getting at: Doesn't it take a federal court to make that determination, and therefore, you would be citing to the case law giving that interpretation that a) common law exists, and is b) binding superior to, and not abrogated by subsequent statutes? So isn't it federal case law that is the basis for common law being applicable?

 

Oskar Blues had to change the name of Gordon to G'Knight when Gordon Biersch decided to be d-bags and made the laughable suggestion that people might confuse the two breweries. But hey, if you make mediocre beer and are not very well known why not piggy back on the popularity of a good brewery.

 

Oscar Blues chose to change the name of the beer, which would seem to be indicative of the prospect not being laughable.

If all our grandmother's went to the liquor store to pick up our favorite beer, let's say it was either Gordon or Gordon Biersch, I guarantee some of them would get confused and buy the wrong one.

 

They chose after receiving a cease and desist

I humbly but firmly disagree on the 2nd part of that

 

Solsun was MUCH better than Oberon. It was brewed in smaller batches and the ABV was around 12%.

 

Say what?

 

Usually breweries don't trademark until they have to. If a brewery coined the name before another brewery, they have the rights to the name. The trademark usually happens when a new beer is distributed in a new territory with the same name and usually the new beer took the name after the already established beer in that territory. Breweries send each other letters to stop using the name and the name changes.

 

I agree with that assesment. Facts from that guy? No.

 

What about Great Lakes Brewing? There's one in Toronto http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/9408 and one in Ohio http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/73. I find it hard to believe that the larger brewery (in Ohio) hasn't complained about the Toronto based brewery. Is it because they're in different countries? They're not that far apart geographically speaking.

 

Monster Energy drink sued one of our local breweries, Rock Art Brewing, over the use of "Vermonster". Somehow Monster Energy thought any use of the word "monster" relating to a drink threatened their brand.



It turned out Monster Energy (Hansen's) hired a trademark troll that sent out dozens of cease and desist and trademark infringement letters that everyone and everything that had the word Monster in their title including lots of other things.

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20091023/0448336651.shtml

 

This post appreared on one of the blogs Smuttynose publishes. Written in response to the trademark dispute between Rock Art's Vermonster and Monster Energy drinks a few years back, it goes on at some length about trademarks in general and the various experiences Smuttynose has had with its own logo and labels over the years. Interesting read.

http://smuttynosetavern.blogspot.com/2009/10/trademark-disputes-vermonster-v-monster.html

 

Also doesn't including your Brewery name as part of the Brand Name count as being different?

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Ballast Point Pale Ale, etc etc

 

Heineken made Red Star Recording or Music (can't remember the exact name) change their name because Heineken was going to add a music component to their marketing. Red Star didn't have the resources to fight Heineken.
In the wine world Belvedere vodka sued Belvedere winery, who had been around before the distiller, over the "confusion" factor. The owner of Belvedere winery, Bill Hambrect, happened to be a lawyer and said he would be happy to fight their suit in court but, hey, the brand might be for sale. Ended up selling the winery brand name for about 4x's it worth and kept the property and facilities.

 

That's a pretty good one from De Molen, name change that is...on a side note North Coast's stable of beers is just as solid as the popular Rasputin.

 

The "conflict" in question was Sol, which no one would confuse with Solson/Oberon, but it happens all the time with big companies. A local bar was just forced to change their name by a spirits company using the same logic:
http://www.mlive.com/business/west-michigan/index.ssf/2012/09/sazerac_rezervior.html