Breweries Fight Over Trademark Of Hikers That Don't Look Alike

from the take-a-hike dept

The ongoing saga of strange trademark battles between purveyors of sweet, delicious alcohol continues this week. This latest case revolves around two beer breweries. Long Trail Brewing Co. of Vermont makes a suite of brews that feature its trademarked logo, which includes the image of a generic hiker with a backpack. The company is suing Bent Paddle Brewing Co. of Minnesota over the labels used on its "Trail Series" of beer, which include two hiker images, the most similar of which is a stick figure that is about the size of the legal type section in a typical ToS agreement. Seriously, here are the two labels.

If you're confused as to whether or not those two labels represent that same brand of beer, you need immediate medical help. I'm forced to assume the dispute is over that tiny stick-figure guy at the top of the label, because cross-country skier guy on the other side of the can isn't even close in terms of being an infringing logo. Not that the one at the top is any better. Other than the reverse of two common colors in the illustration scheme, there isn't a whole lot of confusion to be had there. Not that this fact stopped Long Trail Brewing from hilariously claiming otherwise.

“Bent Paddle’s use of a hiker logo in connection with its ale products is likely to cause confusion and mistake and deceive consumers” as well as creating “the false and misleading impression that Bent Paddle’s products are manufactured by Long Trail, or are affiliated, connected or associated with Long Trail, or have the sponsorship, endorsement or approval of Long Trail, or are part of ‘The Long Trail Family of Fine Ales.’”

Ah, yes, there is sure to be this confusion over a dissimilar generic hiker logo featured at the top of a beer label that features the rival brewery's name on it something like four times larger than the offending hiker. How clever of Bent Paddle to try to associate itself with a rival brewery by cleverly making sure everyone knows who actually made the beer in question. Keep in mind that Long Trail is asking for a ban of the logo, a recall of all beer sold with the logo, and triple damages and legal fees.

All for a stick figure. Way to go, guys.

Filed Under: breweries, hikers, logos, trademark
Companies: bent paddle brewing, long tail brewing