Sam Adams Beer Tells Real Sam Adams He Can't Use Sam Adams In A Domain Name
from the how-would-our-founding-father-feel? dept
Witty Nickname writes "In Portland, Oregon a man named Sam Adams is running for mayor, and has a website called mayorsamadams.com. In Boston the brewers of Sam Adam's beer sent a letter to the people who registered the site telling them to knock it off, because they have been using the trademark 'Sam Adams' since 1984. The candidate fought back saying that he had been using the name all of his life. Once the brewer realized that it was not a joke they said they are willing to discuss his use of the domain throughout the campaign. How generous of them." As of the time of this writing, the website itself says: "We are sorry. Due to pending legal action these pages are now unavailable." The company behind Samuel Adams Beer, the Boston Beer Company, is apparently now saying that the real problem it had with the use of the name was that it was registered by employees of a radio station, and even though it was for the real candidate Sam Adams, it was being used by the radio station for commercial reasons. Of course, that's a pretty weak response, because it seems pretty likely that the trademark on Sam Adams is related directly to beer and other merchandise -- and not to random political websites. Also, it seems doubtful that the radio hosts were using the beer connection as part of their promotion of the candidate. In other words, it's difficult to see how this passes the moron in a hurry test.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: domain names, trademark
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Also...
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Hmm...
Doesn't trademark only apply if say, this Sam Adams (the person)decides to start producing alcoholic drinks or something like that? Beside, if you choose a name like Sam Adams to try and help sell your crummy beer, they should expect some real Sam Adams (people) out there to maybe want a domain name themselves.
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I'm not surprised...
Next up:
Guiness Beer vs. The Guiness Book of World Records:The Trademark Showdown!!
McDonald's lawsuit: "How dare the Scotish use the name McDonald for hundreds of years without paying us the proper license fees!"
Wendy's battles for its name sake: "So what if the name Wendy dates back several centuries!"
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Re: I'm not surprised...
Guiness Beer vs. The Guiness Book of World Records:The Trademark Showdown!!
Sorry, no conflict there. The 'Guinness' name in both refers to the same company (2 'N's by the way). The Guinness World Records book was created by the Guinness Brewery and distributed free to pubs as a promotion in 1955.
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Re: I'm not surprised...
>Guiness Beer vs. The Guiness Book of World Records:The Trademark Showdown!!
Hardly - which company do you think created the Guiness Book of World Records in the first place...?
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Re: I'm not surprised...
http://www.wendy.com/wendyweb/history.html
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Re: Re: I'm not surprised...
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Re: I'm not surprised...
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Par for the course for Sam Adams
Back at that time, there was a movement amongst homebrewers to boycott Sam Adams products.
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Re: Par for the course for Sam Adams
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Guiness Beer vs. The Guiness Book of World Records:The Trademark Showdown!!
Dude, two seconds on the web was all it would have taken
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinness_book_of_records
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Have him do his own web site. And then watch the uproar as
the beer company goes after the home team...
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Do you really want to have people accidentally voting for a mayor in Oregon when they thought they were voting for the real Samuel Adams, one of the original Founding Fathers of America. Afterall, ghosts have been voting for centuries, heck, one was even won the election for senator in Missouri, why wouldn't a "Moron in a Hurry" believe that one was running for Mayor in Portland.
Trademark laws are in place to prevent exactly this type of confusion.
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Re:
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counter suit
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Companies must stop lawyers from making pivotal business decisions.
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Samples
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Samples
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Re: Samples
Let me guess..you are a Bud fan...or maybe Michelob. Real Uh-Murican Beer
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Maybe thats exactly what they are doing ... we're all talking about Sam Adams beer aren't we.
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Re:
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Sam Adams is Great!
As for this whole trademark situation, well, they jumped the gun and goofed up. Once they found out their mistake they backed down.
Move on, nothing to see here.
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Re: Sam Adams is Great!
You wish.
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Re: Names
> names cleared prior to approval.
In some countries people do. Germany is one, I believe. The government won't legally let you name your kid certain names depending on whether the government thinks too many people are using that name or if the name has negative connotations (like Adolf, for example).
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in the one commercial he said he won first place overall in his first beer competition, what he neglects to mention is that he bought over half the tickets and gave to friends and told them to vote for him.....
however, his beer is good. well better than the watered down flavorless stuff that is bud/coors/miller.
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So what's the legality?
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Re: So what's the legality?
and then do a google for farmers sucks (Farmers insurance) you will find lots of info on the "legal" pages... Sam Adams (beer, or cow piss, I am not sure) is on the wrong side of the law this time and their letter from the lawyers is full of shit
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Re: Re: So what's the legality?
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I can see they are friendly indeed.
If anyone's 'pirating' the use of a name - they are.
Perhaps the descendants of the real Sam Adams should sue them silly.
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Let's see how they like my website
I was named Samuel Adams before the beer existed, and I am in fact a decendent of the real Sam Adams. I don't recall James Koch asking my permision to use my name to sell his beer.
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Sam Adams
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