Sorry Full Sail - I don't see where you have much ground to stand on here. Sail is an extremely common word, and there is no confusion between "Grey Sail" and "Full Sail". I mean, how many breweries do we have with "dog" in it? Thirsty Dog, Laughing Dog, Flying Dog, Sea Dog, Hair of the Dog... Petty little bickerings like this between craft companies really make them look no better than BMC.
Full Sail seriously feels threatened by Grey Sail? Sheesh. Kinda don't feel like buying any Full Sail products for the time being. Not that I really ever seek them out anyway.
I doubt that Full Sail is threatened but they have to protect their brand at all times. This may be a case where they are being overprotective.l
I agree - you do need to protect your trademark, if you're going to do it. That said, this is "Grey Sail", not "Sails Full" or "Full of Sails" or "Full Grey Sails".
I immediately thought maybe the logo was similar and could confuse people but nope, looks nothing like it. They won't be forced to stop using the logo or name.
While some of these issues make sense in the name of "protecting one's brand"...this one makes no sense at all. The folks at Grey Sails are really lovely - not that that matters in situations like this... but we actually have a beer with the same name (Stargazer Stout) and easily came to an agreement that we could both live with... While we don't know the folks at Full Sail, we're hoping that they're just getting bad advice for an overzealous attorney, because some of this petty stuff takes the good karma out of the craft beer industry.
Sad, but if they persist, the best bet is local action. Monster energy drinks took a shot at a local brewery in VT a few years back. The brewery was Rock Art, and they make a barleywine called The Vermonster. Rock Art had a ton of support from the craft beer community and the local community, with boycotts and the like. The suit got dropped. I can't attribute it directly to the community efforts, but it certainly didn't hurt at all.
A new story on the standoff in this week's Providence Phoenix: http://providence.thephoenix.com/food/140506-beer-wars-grey-sail-and-full-sail-face-off/
Lame. Full Sail should spend more time improving their product than looking for spurious lawsuits to file.
