Anheuser-Busch Trying To Trademark Area Codes For Local Beers
from the drunk-moron-in-a-hurry? dept
Ryan points us to the news that beer giant Anheuser-Busch InBev is apparently in the process of trying to trademark various area codes across the country. A few months back AB bought Goose Island, a craft brewer who made a beer called 312... after the local area code in Chicago. Apparently AB liked the idea so much that it's seeking trademarks elsewhere, which (one assumes) it will try to use to offer local beers. Of course, with an operation like AB, you wonder if it won't just package up the same beer for each location...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: area codes, beers, trademark
Companies: anheuser-busch inbev, goose island
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Has the USPTO changed their policy on this in the last decade?
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Re:
You can probably get it past the USPTO, but it won't hold in court.
It's a 586! It's a Pentium! It's a 586! It's a Pentium!
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Just like every other trademark, it depends on how you use it and its relationship to the goods or services.
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It's more complicated than that
Naming a beer after a zip code has no such problem. If you describe a beer to someone with a three digit number, they're not likely to even guess that it's a reference to where the beer comes from.
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Re: It's more complicated than that
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Re: It's more complicated than that
I imagine this is just a plan to sell the same beer with a different name in different cities. So where ever people drink it it is their area code.
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Re: Re: It's more complicated than that
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Re: Re: Re: It's more complicated than that
If if someone just said 312 my mind would think of this beer or the area code and if someone just said 586 i would probably think of processors.
But if someone just walked up and said three numbers to me I imagine my first thought would be that they are crazy.
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Re: Re: It's more complicated than that
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Re: Re: Re: It's more complicated than that
No that was a year round beer. Sorry for my ignorance I didn't know Goose Island was distributing elsewhere these days. I know in my college years I never saw it elsewhere in the midwest. These days when I travel I look for beers that arnt available to me not my local go-to. So if its been in other places I guess I just never noticed. But checking the Wiki it looks like they went semi-national in 2006.
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Thank God for free beer and the open source people :)
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actually...
Let's hope they come up with more clever monickers than just the 3 digits of an area code.
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Re: actually...
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If this was Europe
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Re: If this was Europe
http://www.patentlyo.com/patent/2009/04/trademark-mark-is-geographically-deceptively-mis descriptive-only-if-deception-is-material-to-a-substantial-portion-of-the-in.html
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Patent
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Of course, when things got back to (the new) normal...
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Congrats AB, you bought your own beer.
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Info on what Bud might be made of comes from experience and confirmation from http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f37/budweiser-clone-105423/index2.html#post1157628
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You mean phoney Budweiser - real Budweiser - as brewed in the Czech Republic - is quite different. (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budweiser) Of course this is simply history repeating itself - the AB thought the Budweiser name sounded good and so simply used it - then had the cheek to try and stop the original companies using the name.
It looks like they want to try the same trick with the area codes. Of course in Europe there is a tendency to require geographically based names of food products to be genuine so AB would have a hard time doing it over here.
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Umm, what?
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Re: Umm, what?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%8Cesk%C3%A9_Bud%C4%9Bjovice
If you want a real Budweiser, try Budweiser Budvar (or Czechvar as it's known in America, according to Wikipedia).
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Re: Umm, what?
If you had bothered to read the link I provided you would never have written that...
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Re: Umm, what?
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http://xkcd.com/386/
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Great job with nothing of substance.
It's actually a pretty good micro-brew.
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I wouldn't say its "nothing of substance" Given the ingredients, Color, IBU, and other information provided by Goose Island, The creators of the beer, and experience from brewing beer myself I have a pretty good idea what it would taste like. It would probably be a little more hoppy than Bud / Bud light (from the IBU being 20 vs 5-10). Consider it like an Expert Witness in a court case.... He wasn't there but still knows a little about what hes talking about.
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I doubt that bud has torrified wheat. I think it does have corn though.
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Well, if the number described the location of its origin... then it would be a merely descriptive mark. Which could not be trademarked. So the only way it'll work is if they do not use it to describe its origin.
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its too bad about NAB buying MH tho.
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Magic Hat has always been an interesting company, They have really great ideals, brewing "whatever they want" I want to like their beers, I used to drink #9... but most of their beer's taste like crap to me. You drink them because you like the concept. Once you start having other local beers like Long Trail, Switchback, Rock Art, etc. Magic Hat loses interest.
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Beer Definition
fake fake fake
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Re: Beer Definition
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I guess some beer snobs are so eager to show how elite their tastes are that they make judgments based on labels rather than facts/taste.
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Zip codes
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Lame
Those bastards are experts at ruining good breweries....
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Re: Lame
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Geographic marks generally aren't allowable . . .
And yes, I'd argue area codes would be geographically descriptive.
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"It's not exactly outside of the norm."
Really?
"The original Pentium branded CPUs were expected to be named 586 or i586, to follow the naming convention of previous generations (286, i386, i486). However, Intel was unable to persuade the court of law to allow them to trademark numbers (such as "i486")"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentium
Also of interest - can you trademark a number?
http://message.snopes.com/showthread.php?t=46044
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Yes, really. That single Pentium example does not make three-digit trademark registrations some extraordinary thing.
Also, while I wouldn't recommend Snopes for legal advice, that link supports the notion that number trademarks are no big deal: "Yes, you can trademark numbers (just as you can other words and phrases) for specific uses, and Boeing does in fact hold trademarks for model numbers such as 737."
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Is not getting their three-digit trademark outside the norm?
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Check out my new Beer
1-800-DIAL-BUD
I just registered the trademark this morning. I'm asking the techdirt community to please let me know if anyone is stealing my mark.
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Turnpike trademarks
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312 is the average daily road kill used in Chicago beer.
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Rediculous
Wait, letters are no longer valid because everyone uses email!
Rubbish, email can be hacked, mess with a letter and you will face the postal inspectors!
Besides, we really don't want the art of handwriting to disappear now do we?
I like paper, its nice, does not require electricity, lasts for centuries and cannot be altered without leaving a trail that can be detected.
PAPER RULES!
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Re: Rediculous
But beware, someone will try to trademark zip codes...
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If you believe the Google ads
I think it may be the particular expression though, as their logo is a nicely designed number 3.
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