Voodoo Brewery Changes Beer Name By Dipping It In Snark In Response To Pitt Trademark C&D

from the mission-accomplished? dept

Tue, Jun 26th 2018 7:48pm — Timothy Geigner

Snark is a wholly underrated tool for dealing with trademark bullies. While we've seen it employed in the past, the victim of trademark bullying turning the tables on the bully with humor is something that still is far too rare. One brewery recently showed exactly how this is done.

Voodoo Brewery has been selling its H2P IPA since 2014, with a can label that nods towards the University of Pittsburgh, where the brother of the brewery's founder went to school. It was only in late 2017 that the school sent out a cease and desist letter, claiming trademark infringement.

Voodoo started selling H2P in its original can in 2014. The beer grew in popularity and was twice featured on Pitt’s campus after its release. Then, in October, Pitt called Voodoo and asked it to cease and desist distributing the “H2P” IPAs with the school’s trademarked image, font and phrase. Voodoo released the newly designed cans a few weeks ago and they sold out in a couple of days.

Voodoo’s chief executive office, Matteo Rachocki, said that he and others at Voodoo were surprised at Pitt’s cease and desist request, since the beer was on the market for three years prior.

“We had been invited on campus to pour the beer twice, so we had just kind of assumed that we had their blessing,” Rachocki said.

That obviously wouldn't hold up as any kind of a legal argument, although one wonders what exactly explains the delay in Pitt's enforcement. The beer was not only known to the school, but had been displayed on campus, I assume specifically because of the tie in with the school. That sounds like it should have been an awesome example of a school understanding that the education and alcohol sectors are not common marketplaces, and working to support an alumnus. That possibility is now gone, with the school taking the strong arm route.

Well, it doesn't appear that Voodoo will be deprived of the last laugh, even as it complies with Pitt's C&D.

Rachocki met with Pitt officials Jan. 22 to work out a deal that would allow Voodoo to use Pitt trademarks. Rachocki said the new design for the can labels was on the conference room table when Pitt officials came to meet at the brewery. He said he presented the cans to make University officials aware of the brewery’s plan for the IPA if they couldn’t secure rights to Pitt’s trademarks. After an initially encouraging meeting in January, Rachocki said Pitt stopped responding to his emails.

The new cans still feature Pitt’s trademark blue and gold color scheme, but that’s where any allusions to Pitt end. The cans now read “NON-TRADEMARK INFRINGEMENT ALMA MATER IPA” with no other Pitt-related images.

The name refers both to the bullying Pitt did, as well as the fact that alumni work at Voodoo Brewery. Frankly, that's not a good look for Pitt in the public, but it's a wonderful example of how far a little snark can go in responding to trademark bullying.

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Filed Under: beer, h2p, ipa, snark, trademark
Companies: pitt, voodoo brewery

30 Comments

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Gary (profile), 26 Jun 2018 @ 7:06pm

Pitt
When did the school start selling beer?
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Jun 2018 @ 7:52pm

Re: Pitt
After they stopped allowing kids to be molested over an unimportant assistant coach because football apparently.
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Anonymous Anonymous Coward (profile), 26 Jun 2018 @ 8:07pm

Hydrogen squared Pittsburgh?
The picture in the linked article does not display H2P. Not being a Pitt fan, what the hell does H2P mean anyway, and why would Pitt trademark it?

Next question is when will Pitt invite 'NON-TRADEMARK INFRINGEMENT ALMA MATER IPA' to campus. I like IPA's, the more hops the better, at least for me. They make good, flavorful, natural preservatives, but the flavorful part is more important to me. I don't have to try and transport it from England to India in very slow boats.
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Advocate (profile), 26 Jun 2018 @ 8:43pm

Isn't the whole point of IPA that it does Not have the hops taste? That's why i like it.
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Jun 2018 @ 8:46pm

H2P meaning
Hail to Pitt (University of Pittsburgh fight song;
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Jun 2018 @ 9:28pm

IPA?
Isn't isopropyl alcohol usually made from petroleum? Why would a brewery be making that stuff?
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Jun 2018 @ 9:34pm

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=imgres&cd=&ved=2ahUKE wjbq8KIgvPbAhVI1IMKHUHODyEQjRx6BAgBEAU&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.post-gazette.com%2Fsports%2FPitt%2F2 017%2F10%2F19%2Fh2p-beer-pitt-trademark-voodoo-brewery-pittsburgh-panthers-homecoming%2Fstories%2F20 1710190025&psig=AOvVaw11Cqr4kn0cJ2rcazm3gZ0V&ust=1530160463543516
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Bergman (profile), 26 Jun 2018 @ 9:35pm

Re: IPA?
Apparently you are unaware that isopropyl alcohol was discovered in 1920, while India pale ale has been around since 1840. If anything has a claim to the IPA label, it's the ale.
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Jun 2018 @ 9:37pm

Sorry, didn't fully vet the link. Try this one:
http://www.post-gazette.com/image/2017/10/19/1140x_q90_a10-7_cTC/NS-PITTBEER1019-13.jpg
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Uriel-238 (profile), 26 Jun 2018 @ 9:42pm

This reminds me of a card game
Before I Kill You, Mr. Bond was a game that played on the old spy-fiction trope of telling the spy-in-the-deathtrap the master plan before leaving him for dead.

MGM objected to the allusion to James Bond (there was one, high-point value spy, Mr. Bond. among a plethora of other super-spies.)

The second print was James Ernest's Totally Renamed Spy Game with double the deck size (110 cards from 55). Apparently, an again-renamed version is on Kickstarter.
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Jun 2018 @ 11:38pm

out_of_the_blue's heroes, ladies and gentlemen - defending intellectual property law, one shitty moron-in-a-hurry trademark at a time!
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John Smith, 27 Jun 2018 @ 1:25am

Snark is a great way to get sued when you could have avoided it, and make your attorneys rich, all for some internet lulz.
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David, 27 Jun 2018 @ 2:29am

Obvious next step:
Trademarking the "non-trademark infringement" brand.
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stderric (profile), 27 Jun 2018 @ 2:53am

...the education and alcohol sectors are not common marketplaces...

I think that might be open to debate.
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CAT (profile), 27 Jun 2018 @ 3:03am

Education
This is Amazing article thanks for the sharing with us.
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dickeyrat, 27 Jun 2018 @ 3:40am

And what does Voodoo Donuts in Portland have to say about any of this?
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Jun 2018 @ 5:15am

Re: Re: Pitt
That was Penn State.

Pitt is now going to chase you down for libel.
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Pixelation, 27 Jun 2018 @ 7:27am

Re:
"Isn't the whole point of IPA that it does Not have the hops taste? "

The original point of IPA was that it had a lot of hops added to the beer to help it survive the long, non-refrigerated trip from England to India. These days, IPA's have a lot more flavor and aroma from the hops as well as the strong bitterness it's always had.
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JoeCool (profile), 27 Jun 2018 @ 8:12am

Re: Hydrogen squared Pittsburgh?
H2P means "Hail To Pitt" and is Pitt's fight song. Hence the trademark.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Jun 2018 @ 8:42am

Re: Re:
IPA has gotten decidedly "hoppier" over the years. The original IPAs were not all that bitter and didn't leave you smelling like hops the next day. It only takes one or two glasses of a modern IPA to do that.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Jun 2018 @ 8:45am

Re:
Nothing, if they're smart.
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Get off my cyber-lawn! (profile), 27 Jun 2018 @ 9:21am

Re: Pitt
I'm guessing this question sums up their concern....some idiot (not the commenter) would get wasted on beer, injure someone and the school would be sued because...the school "allowed" their name to be associated and also because...reasons.

Doesn't make a lick of sense, but welcome to our civil court system.
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That Anonymous Coward (profile), 27 Jun 2018 @ 9:45am

Lawyers gotta keep those retainers.
IP law is blistering hot & if you tell the brain damaged in power all the money they are losing they scream burn the heretics!!!

Then they managed to piss off the community, look like fscking morons, then have to spend on PR to fix their name when they could have easily avoided it & earned mindshare by ignoring the lawyer & not being a prick.
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Thad, 27 Jun 2018 @ 9:56am

Re:

Isn't the whole point of IPA that it does Not have the hops taste? That's why i like it.

It sounds like you haven't been drinking American IPAs.

English-style IPAs have a relatively mild hop flavor. American-style IPAs are extremely hoppy.
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CyberKender, 27 Jun 2018 @ 3:16pm

Re: Re:
The American craft beer market also realized that when they made a batch of some other sort of beer, and it didn't turn out well, they could pour a ton of hops into it, call it an IPA, and people would drink it.
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Thad, 27 Jun 2018 @ 3:44pm

Re: Re: Re:
That's...not how brewing beer works.
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Flakbait (profile), 27 Jun 2018 @ 4:32pm

How about...
...calling it Pain In The Tush IPA?

See what I did there?
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nasch (profile), 27 Jun 2018 @ 11:12pm

Clown Shoes
Reminds me of the Vampire Slayer beer story.

https://www.clownshoesbeer.com/uncategorized/11334/?doing_wp_cron=1530166091.57252907752990722 65625
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Sok Puppette (profile), 30 Jun 2018 @ 5:16am

Re: Pitt
Maybe the school doesn't want to be associated with drunks, since they tend to be kind of a problem on a college campus.

I looked at the original artwork, and it could absolutely lead you to believe the school endorsed the beer. Licensing the trademark WOULD be endorsing the beer.

This is a case where the school was totally in the right from a common sense point of view. I'm not sure about the legalities.
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Uriel-238 (profile), 30 Jun 2018 @ 7:42am

"associated with drunks"
I'm pretty sure drunk behavior is proscribed on the campus proper. Most Bacchanalic (Dionysian) orders drink on their own grounds.

If it's a severe enough problem that this is the concern, they could preclude students at the college from drinking entirely as a provision for attending.

Sok Puppette you seem to believe the school is already identified as party campus, and that won't change whether or not a given brew features its colors.
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