Do microbrews trademark their various brands?

I've heard of certain breweries having to change the name of their beers because of threats.

One was Solsun... which is what Oberon is now. Some Mexican company complained about it, and they changed the name.

 

I don't think anyone can trademark Black Jack as it's so common. But many other things are trademarked and fights over trademarks happen occasionally.

 

Yes, breweries do trademark brands. In order to maintain control over your trademarked name you have to protect your trademark, this is why you have seen the threat of legal action between breweries.

You will see a fair number of duplicate names. Black Jack is a common name, so is Double Trouble. If a brewery does own a trademark on the name they have lost their exclusive right to the name at this point as they have failed to protect the trademark.

 

Sometimes they do.

Depending on whether or not a beeradvocate likes the brewery or not, will often determine the sentiment on here when said brewery attempts to protect its intellectual property or gets a c&d letter. Sorry, cease & desist letter. . .

 

I am sure Bells would have been OK if it would have been the other way around right?

 

Bell's would have been okay no matter what. Mm. Oberon..

 

They sure do, just ask Scott at Freetail or Google "Freetail cease and desist letter"

 

Of course, but many common terms and names are almost impossible to trademark because they've been in common usage for so long. That's why you can't trademark individual generic words/phrases like "steam" or "beer", but Anchor was able to trademark the phrase "Steam Beer", forcing everyone else to call theirs a "California Common." I would assume that Black Jack falls into the former category, but if you tried to use art that was similar to the above example along with the name you would probably have a lawsuit on your hands.

 

It happened even in WY...having to change a beer's name. Wyoming State's Red Desert Red changed to Rendezvous Red after Bitter Creek complained.

 

Yes, a search for Black Jack on the BA main page shows lots of them in the USA and overseas.

 

Stillwater Artisanals from (MD) sued stillwater brewing from Stillwater, (MN) and MN stillwater is now called staples mills brewing

 

http://www.uspto.gov

Even if it is trademarked, you have to go out and protect it.

 

Firestone Walker had to change their name for Abacus because a wine company had trademarked it.
I heard slide rule and calculator were considered before they settled on Sucaba.

 

Swamp Head won a gold medal for one of their beers and then got a cease and desist from another Floridian brewery and had to change the name of the beer. Swamphead's Blackwater is now known as Darkwater.

 

North Coast sent a C&D to De Molen for using the name "Rasputin" for an imperial stout. Hilariously enough they renamed it "Disputin" and there's a little blurb on the label taking a jab at North Coast.

 

Mr. Bell learned the leason of defending his IP, and no defends it. One homebrew shop changed a kit's name from 3 hearted ale to dead ringer due to a C&D letter.

This is the way it works, its business, nothing personal.

 

I thought it was Molson that had them change it.

 

The brewers of Sol were first in, but IIRC Molson was in the wings. They got to keep the artwork, and the text was easy to change as Solsun and Oberon both have 6 letters.