Two Years Later, Bell's Brewery Finally Fails To Bully A Tiny Brewery Out Of Its Legitimate Trademark

from the it-tolls-for-thee dept

Nearly three years ago, Bell's Brewery, whose products I used to buy greedily, decided to oppose a trademark for Innovation Brewing, a tiny operation out of North Carolina. The reasons for the opposition are truly difficult to comprehend. First, Bell's stated that it uses the slogan "Bottling innovation since 1985" on some merchandise. This was only barely true. The slogan does appear on some bumper stickers that Bell sells and that's pretty much it. It appears nowhere in any of the brewery's beer labels or packaging. Also, Bell's never registered the slogan as a trademark. Bell's also says it uses the slogan "Inspired brewing" and argues that Innovation's name could create confusion in the marketplace because it's somehow similar to that slogan.

This is a good lesson in why trademark bullying of this nature is a pox on any industry derived largely of small players, because it's only in the past weeks that the Trademark Trials and Appeals Board in Virginia has ruled essentially that Bell's is full of crap.

The federal Trademark Trials and Appeals Board in Virginia says there is little chance of confusion by consumers and dismissed Bell’s action on Dec. 20.

Bell’s says it is moving on. “We respect the Trademark Office’s decision and look forward to doing business as usual,” the brewery said in an emailed statement to Xpress.

That's simply not good enough. Innovation is roughly one-sixtieth the size of Bell's, producing 500 barrels a year, and representing a zero threat to the much larger company. And, yet, for three years Innovation has been tied up in this federal action trying to simply register the name of the brand upon which it built its small business. Also, and I cannot stress this enough, the claims that Bell's was making were plainly absurd. Those claims included stating that the words "innovation" and "inspired" had the same or similar meanings to the degree the public would be confused. They don't. It attempted to block a trademark over a slogan it barely uses and never registered. There was never any reason to do any of this.

Yet, we have three years of bullying action. At the end of that bullying, Bell's gets to waltz away and say it is "moving on", with the legal costs representing a decimal point on its ledger, whereas Innovation has no such war chest and was almost certainly impeded in its business having to deal with all of this. If that isn't the kind of thing the legal system should be better designed to handle, I cannot imagine what would be.

Filed Under: bullying, innovation, trademark
Companies: bell's brewery, innovation brewing

Bell's Brewery Goes After Craft Brewer Over Trademark It Barely Uses & Hasn't Registered

from the well-okay-then dept

It's been an amount of time that can be measured at the level of a nuclear clock, so I guess there must be another story about a dumbass trademark dispute involving a small craft brewery for some reason. I'm not sure what the hell is going on in the beer-making industry that is setting story after story after story about this kind of thing, but it really needs to stop. Too often these disputes seem to be of the silliest nature, with no customer confusion to worry about and only the most intangible similarities being fought over. But this latest story in which Bell's Brewery, a relatively large "craft" brewery, has filed a federal action against an itty bitty little beer-maker over a trademarked phrase it barely uses and hasn't registered might just be the dumbest of them all.

Innovation Brewing of Sylva, N.C. makes only about 500 barrels of beer a year, mostly sold in Jackson County. But size doesn't matter in a tough trademark dispute with the much bigger Bell's Brewery of Kalamazoo, which made more than 310,000 barrels last year. Bell's has filed a federal action against Innovation over the use of its name. Bell's says its unregistered advertising slogan "bottling innovation since 1985" could lead to confusion with customers. While the slogan is used on bumper stickers, it's not present on any of the brewery's beer packaging. Bell's also uses a slogan "inspired brewing" that's been part of the legal complaint that the company believes would be confused with Innovation Brewing's name.

Any use of the slogan "bottling innovation" by Bell's has been so minimal that the folks at Innovation Brewing can't even find examples of it. And, while trademarks don't necessarily need to be registered to be valid, one would think that if the slogan and its similarity (blech...) to the competitor's name were worth a legal claim, so too would it have been worth registering with the USPTO. In the meantime, the legal fees and costs of retaining counsel is preventing Innovation Brewing from buying the actual stuff to run its business, like brewing equipment.

Fortunately, it appears Innovation Brewing isn't entirely alone in this fight.

The Asheville Brewers Alliance, a trade organization representing 45 area breweries and beer-related businesses, has lined up in support of Innovation, a statement said.

"There are many instances where craft breweries have encountered trademark issues and have chosen to work together to resolve their differences," it said. "As an Asheville Brewers Alliance member, we support Innovation Brewing and are hopeful that, in the spirit of collaboration, Bell's Brewery and Innovation Brewing will arrive at an agreement amenable to both parties."

The dream of an amicable end to all this isn't completely pie in the sky, mind you. The craft brewing space and its penchant for creative labels and off-the-wall naming conventions has actually been surprisingly cooperative on this kind of thing. But, then, calling Bell's a "craft brewery" is massively stretching the term to the point of absurdity. Instead, it seems the legal tendancies of larger corporations have tempted the once-smaller company to the dark side of IP bullying. This, mind you, over a 500 barrel a year producing David that poses no threat and almost certainly no confusion with the much larger Goliath. I typically look forward to my Bell's Hopslam every year. This year, maybe not so much.

Filed Under: bottling innovation, trademark
Companies: bell's brewery, innovation brewing