Sony sues Knee Deep Brewing over "Breaking Bud"

Brilliant!

 

I think some have, as in "it's just a joke man, nobody is going to take it seriously" while knowing they're bootstraping on someone else's acquired name recognition.

 

Not just the name- in many cases, like this one, it's the graphics as well. This one immediately comes to mind:

 

Maybe they'll have to rename it? Honestly, I don't care what KD calls it. I just buy it because the brewery is 20 minutes away...its fresh...and its good!

 

Depends on who has the better lawyers.

That said, I'm on Team Whatthehelltookemsolong? Gotta be some reason they are taking action now.

 

Or this one . . .

 

To be fair, if anyone is gonna have a sense of humor about this kind of situation it’s Mel Brooks.

 

Spaceballs is one of my favorite movies, so [trademark issues aside] I like this; but their use of purple in the background/lettering makes this extra funny to me... funny in a very immature way, but still funny.

EDIT: ...and I agree with the poster above that Mel Brooks probably doesn't care.

 

I don't know if Mr. Brooks is laughing or even cares but the current Star Wars franchise is kicking along and perhaps those Corporate Dark Lords are not amused.

 

And how much they even care to negotiate or "play nice" with redesigns. Sony's a big company, they don't do beer, they have far more important things to do than review, negotiate, and approve a tiny little brewer's labels who shouldn't have infringed in the first place. People who think Sony is bullying aren't going to change their mind if they play nice now. What does Sony gain by working with Knee Deep? ...Nothing.

 

I am not a lawyer, but I have to assume the parody defense is not going to work for the reason that what if Sony/Breaking Bad folks wanted to contract out a Breaking Bad-themed beer? The possibility that this Knee Deep beer would be confused with something like that is much higher than that of the Stone/KeyStone situation. Even though this is hypothetical, ultimately they must defend their trademark if they feel it is being infringed upon.

To the question of, "Why now?" I assume Sony just became aware of this. Knee Deep is not on the level of Stone, Sierra Nevada, New Beligum, Lagunitas, Founders, or Sam Adams, so it seems logical that Sony may not have been aware of this beer for some time. This is just my assumption, though.

I do believe this is an infringement since it is so very blatant (the artwork more than the name), but I don't know where the line is, and I don't believe that every single beer that references a movie, TV show, album, song, lyric, piece of art, book, etc. should be subject to legal action. I certainly hope this is not the first in a cascade of lawsuits, since most beer companies are likely to lose to the corporate legal teams of the trademark holders in most of the possible cases. Referencing things in other mediums is fun as long as it is in good taste and not in a deceptive way. I don't think Knee Deep is being deceptive, but I do think they step over the line a little in just how obvious the reference is and how prevalent it is in every aspect of the beer (except the brewing process of course).

 

Dark Helmet is from Spaceballs, Mel Brooks’ parody of Star Wars.

 

I'm curious as to why sony would sue over this, unless they want to brew beer in the near future. My guess would be an easy payday... or maybe they're worried about the brewer making merch that would take money out of their pockets. I just don't see how a beer parody would hurt their business in any way. I also don't understand flexing legal muscle over everything, but maybe I'm a fool.

 

Right but it still looks like and insinuates Darth Vader. My bet would be If Disney did not want this beer out there it would be gone. The mouse has really deep pockets.

Enjoy

 

Well. It is definitely time Knee Deep does something about updating that look.
Glad someone at Sony told them to step it up.

 

Fair enough. I get protecting a trademark, but on an old show that's mostly off the air but reruns it seems unnecessary

 

For real though, a little surprised it took this long for the lawsuit to happen. Between the name and label artwork, Sony will simply outlast/outspend Knee Deep. In other words: $$$Billions vs $$$Millions in resources.

Advise: Throw in the towel early Knee Deep.

 

BTW, you're not the only regular with that job description. To quote Sgt Hulka: lighten up Francis.

 

It only insinuated Darth Vader when Mel Brooks made the character. The beer itself is literally a direct reference to the Spaceballs character, to which Disney holds no claim. That makes it MGM’s character to protect.