Monster Energy Buys A Brewery; Trademark Lawsuits Are Almost Sure To Follow

from the oh...oh-no dept

Did you all just hear that? That tiny, nearly silent series of screams you hear all around you? Well, that was the entire craft beer industry crying out in fear and pain. Why? Well, because Monster Beverage Corp announced that it is going to be a brewery.

Energy drinks maker Monster Beverage Corp (MNST.O) said on Thursday it had agreed to buy craft beer and hard seltzer maker CANarchy Craft Brewery Collective Llc for $330 million in cash, marking its entry into the alcoholic drinks market.

Monster said the deal would add alcoholic brands Cigar City, Oskar Blues, Deep Ellum, Perrin Brewing, Squatters and Wasatch brands to its beverage portfolio and not include CANarchy's restaurants.

If you're in the craft brewing industry and you're not dismayed at this news, then you don't know Monster Energy. This is the company that has taken trademark policing to caricature levels. If you need examples of this, they are legion. Monster Energy went after an autobody shop for using the letter M and the color green in its branding. Monster Energy opposed a teen's trademark application despite the branding being totally dissimilar. Monster Energy opposed the trademark for a pizza chain because it named itself Monsta Pizza. And on and on and on.

So why should this concern the brewing industries? Well, for starters, Monster Energy has attempted in the past to oppose and threaten liquor companies for the crime of having an "M" in their branding. Here is one brief snippet I wrote at the time in that post about Monster opposing a trademark application for Murlarkey Distillery:

To start, the two companies operate in different markets. Yes, both serve liquid for consumption, but one makes an energy drink, while the other is selling liquor, such as vodka. Those are distinct markets and not easily confused during the purchasing process.

With this acquisition, the above statement goes away in many respects. Suddenly, Monster is in the alcohol business. This lends weight to its ability to argue even more than it did before that there might be brand confusion in its attacks, even if those attacks remain frivolous. But even putting the Monster brand aside, take the brands in the acquisition itself. What does it mean, given that Monster now owns Oskar Blues Brewery, for Oscar's Brewing Company? Or any of the several different brews that are branded with the word "Oscar"?

And that's just taking one of the brands and taking the most obvious guesses as to where Monster Energy could get aggressive. As readers here will know, Monster goes well beyond the obvious targets and gets really, absurdly creative for who it thinks is infringing on its trademarks.

It's not a sure thing that this acquisition is going to be a nightmare for the craft brewing industry, but all of Monster's history of aggression sure points us in that direction.

Filed Under: brewery, craft beer, monster, trademark, trademark bullying, trademark threats
Companies: monster energy

Canadian Brewery Changes Name Of Brew Due To Peanut Butter Company Bully That Doesn't Ship In Canada

from the drunk-or-nuts? dept

We've been talking about the trademark crisis facing the craft brewing industry for some time. To recap, an industry explosion coupled with the habit of that industry to come up with creative and referential names for its products has collided with trademark attacks coming both from within and outside of the industry. The industry, which once had a quite permissive and fraternal approach to intellectual property, has since become corporatized. New entrants to the market, therefore, face challenges with how to name their craft beers without facing legal threats.

This is where it's worth repeating that trademark law is chiefly designed to keep the public from being confused as to the source of affiliations of a good or service. In other words, the brand name of a product shouldn't fool the public into thinking it came from somewhere it did not. That reality makes it quite frustrating to see Off Track Brewing agree to change the name of one of its signature brews due to threats issued by a peanut butter brand.

When the guys behind Off Track Brewing came up with a stout beer, using real peanut butter as the key ingredient, they needed a name.

"We were brainstorming one day, and Jon just said, 'You know what, Damn Skippy, it's just jumping out to me, it'd be a really good name,'" said Allan MacKay of Off Track Brewing in Bedford, N.S.

You already know what happened. Damn Skippy jumped in popularity, leading some to comment on the brew on social media. There, whatever legal team the Skippy peanut butter people had contracted with took notice and fired off a cease and desist notice to Off Track. It never got to the litigation level, as Off Track agreed to change the name of the brew. Normally, this is where our post would point out that the beer-buying public is certainly not going to confuse a creatively named peanut butter stout beer as having anything to do with Skippy brands, not to mention that the two products are in wildly different market arenas. All of which ought to have been sufficient to push back on the C&D and even for Off Track to have its day in court, if it wished.

But even if you don't agree with my assessment above, exactly how much potential confusion in the buying public could there be when that same Canadian public can't even buy Skippy peanut butter?

Even though Skippy peanut butter was discontinued in Canada two years ago -- months before the brewery opened -- the owners decided to give in after consulting their lawyer.

"We're gonna switch it up, so it's not a big loss," said MacKay. "The beer stays the same, which is good."

Part of the requirement to hold a valid trademark is that it be in use in the marketplace for commercial purposes. The Skippy people appear to very much be not using it in Canadian commerce. How, therefore, could there be any potential for customer confusion? And why, for the love of all that is peanut-buttery, did Skippy undertake this bullying to begin with?

Filed Under: beer, brewery, canada, damn skippy, peanut butter, skippy
Companies: hormel, off track brewing

Aussie Catering Company Pokes Brewery Over Trademark Spat, Now Finds Itself Potentially Losing The Mark Entirely

from the don't-poke-the-bear dept

It's a point we apparently need to keep hammering home: for there to be trademark infringement, there must be simultaneous use of a validly held trademark in the same market and there must be real or potential customer confusion. Too often businesses throughout the world are under the impression that trademarks are far more broad than they actually are and that they can be used like a cudgel to smack change out of the pockets of other businesses, competing or otherwise. There are risks to this behavior, including a ding to the bully's reputation, backlash from the public, and a loss of money spent on a legal action that need not have occurred.

And, sometimes, a company risks losing the trademark over which it fought entirely. Meet Figjam & Co., a catering business in Australia that threw something of a fit over an Aussie brewery, Burleigh Brewing, having a celebrated beer entitled "FIGJAM Pale Ale."

Figjam & Co owner Jason Davidson registered the trade name Figjam with IP Australia in 2005 before going on to establish a successful catering business that, among other things, provides beer, food and wine to weddings, parties and other functions. Mr Davidson’s Figjam trademark is registered for various goods and services including beer, fruit juices, syrups and other preparations for making beverages.

What should be immediately clear is that catering and brewing businesses are not competing with one another. It's also the case that including drinks in your catering business does not put you in the brewing beverages business, thus having trademarks registered to include goods such as beer and juices doesn't make much sense. That's not how those trademark designations are used. We'll get back into that again later, but first I want to share with you a quote from Mr. Davidson that I think perfectly sums up why this was a silly fight to start. Keep in mind that the aim of trademark law is to prevent customer confusion about the origin of a good or service and that that confusion is part of the test for infringement.

“I’m shocked to discover that Burleigh Brewing has been selling beer using my brand for more than five years,” Mr Davidson. “They would have sold millions of dollars of beer during that time under my trademark. This is a real warning to other small businesses.”

This quote can be accurately remixed as the following: "There was such a dearth of any confusion among my customers that I had no idea Burleigh Brewing even had a beer including the Figjam name for over half a decade. They've done a ton of business, millions of dollars even, and I have never even had a whiff of any confusion from my customers. Now I'd please like a ton of money."

That isn't the likely outcome of all of this, however. In response to being contacted about threatened litigation, Burleigh Brewing has decided to go on the offense.

Australian intellectual property law prohibits use of a trademark that is “substantially identical or deceptively similar” to another trade mark on the same or similar goods or services. A trademark can, however, be challenged on the basis it is not being used on the goods or services for which is it registered.

In the hope that it can obtain registration of the FIGJAM trademark, Burleigh Brewing has filed an application to remove Mr Davidson’s Figjam trademark.

Oops. In other words, Davidson poked the bear and now the bear is trying to invalidate his trademark (I may be losing the analogy in there somewhere). And all this, mind you, over something that was of so little consequence that it had gone unnoticed for several years. Nice job, all around.

Filed Under: australia, brewery, figjam, trademark
Companies: figjam

Brewery Changes Name For Second Time In Two Years Because Trademark

from the 3rd-time's-a-charm? dept

It's a mantra I've been repeating for some time now, but the alcohol and brewing industry has a trademark problem on its hands. We've seen instance after instance of the explosion in the craft brewing industry being hampered and harassed over trademark concerns, both from within the industry and from the outside. Most of these disputes lay bare the fact that trademark law has moved well beyond its initial function of preventing consumer confusion into a new era of corporate bullying and protectionism. But at least in most of these instances, the victim of all this is a victim once. Larry Cary, on the other hand, must be starting to feel like a punching bag, having had to now twice change the name of his alcohol-making business over trademark concerns.

Cary opened North Coast Distilling on Duane Street in 2014. In October, he was sued by California-based North Coast Brewing, and spent about $10,000 changing his name to Pilot House Spirits. Then Cary was sued in January by House Spirits Distilling, which claimed his new name violates "established valuable trademark rights and goodwill throughout the United States." The distillery, known for Aviation American Gin, has registered "House Spirits" and "House Spirits Distillery" with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

His business will become Pilot House Distilling as part of a settlement with House Spirits Distilling.

To be fair, in the current climate, both of these trademark disputes ring as fairly valid from the complainant's perspective. The names in both instances were similar enough that I can understand the concern. That the solution the second go around was a name nearly indistinguishable from the name that had so offended House Spirits Distilling at once raises the question as to just how injurious the original was in the first place, but can also be seen as House Spirits Distilling behaving in an accommodating way. In other words, I can't really say there are any bad guys in this story.

The problem instead is one of bloat. For the alcohol industry, there is at once an era of increased trademark protectionism, an era in which the bar for originality and uniqueness to get the USPTO to approve a trademark has clattered to the floor, and an era of explosion in participation in the industry. That's a recipe for strife and confusion over who is allowed to enter the market using what language and under what circumstances. Some might fairly point out that these trademark protections have contributed to the explosive market to begin with. I would argue vehemently with them, but even for those on that side of the argument there must certainly be an acknowledgement that we're quickly approaching the level of diminishing returns. If the industry wants to continue to grow, it should be paying attention to the hurdles its placing in front of startup participants.

Cary said he'll have to spend another $10,000 to $15,000 changing the name on all his products and properties to Pilot House Distillery, adding that every time he names his business or products, he checks trademarks.

"What I've learned is even if you do everything right and you trademark it… if someone has bigger pockets than you, they can do whatever they want," he said.

What happens when we're faced with more stories of business folk playing brand-name musical chairs, all because there is too little language left available?

Filed Under: brewery, confusion, trademark

Judge Does Mental Gymnastics To Deem Left Nut Brewing Trademark To Be Non-Offensive

from the paging-the-redskins dept

We had just been talking about the awkward place the Washington Redskins most recent legal filing has left the government in, regarding the team's trademark. In that filing, the team pointed out the sheer hypocrisy of the government's stance that the term "Redskins" is too offensive to receive trademark registration status, yet the government has seen fit to award that status to all kinds of terms and phrases that are equally if not more offensive on any number of levels. But it isn't only for already-registered marks that the awkwardness exists. For new applications too, the courts now have to weigh whether offense applies to granting new trademarks. And, frankly, it's causing some in the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board to employ some serious mental gymnastics when ruling.

The most recent example of this concerns a brewery out of Georgia named Left Nut Brewing Company. A recent ruling has allowed the brewery to trademark its name.

On November 16, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board decided to allow a Georgia-based brewery to register their name as a trademark . Established about 30 years ago, “Left Nut Brewing Company” will finally be allowed to register after the reversal of an examiner’s decision that the brewery’s name was too vulgar for registration.

To get the appeal board to allow this, the brewery pointed to langauge on its own website about how the name was derived. The site claims that its name is not of the vernacular one might initially think, but is instead a vernacular use with, according to the site, a different meaning.

Instead, it is “built on a vernacular which epitomizes the willingness to give up something of extreme value to do something or create something unique.” In allowing the name to become a trademark, Judge Shaw used such meaning for the phrase to defend his ruling saying that the figure of speech can mean a multitude of things and only one was arguably vulgar.

Okay, let's not play around. The only meaning this refers to is indeed about a willingness to give up something of value: a man's left-leaning testicle. That's it. That's what left nut means. Now, I happen to love the brewery's name and think it should be adopted in every kind of industry, but the claims about the name having some other etherial meaning is laughable at best. But the judge's ruling claims to have bought the brewery's argument so as to grant it a trademark.

What's becoming clear is that even having to go through these mental gymnastics is dumb and nothing more than a waste of time. The easiest solution would be for the government to get out of the offense-measurement business entirely on trademark matters.

Filed Under: brewery, confusion, left nut beer, offensive, redskins, trademark, uspto

Red Bull Disputes Old Ox Brewery Trademarked Logo/Name Because, Seriously, An Ox Is Just A Castrated Bull

from the redballs dept

You talk enough about the intersection of trademark and alcohol, and you end up discussing a whole lot of stupid. Between breweries going after breweries, Star Wars going after breweries, and even the whole damned MPAA going after breweries, and almost always for the silliest reasons, you have to wonder who could possibly come by and really knock the petty trademark thing out of the park, right?

Oh, hi there, Red Bull! Thanks for coming along and turning trademark into a giant joke about testicles!

Red Bull has filed a complaint with the United States Patent and Trademark Office against a small brewery in Virginia called Old Ox Brewery for the using a male cow in its name and logo. “An ‘ox’ and a ‘bull’ both fall within the same class of ‘bovine’ animals and are virtually indistinguishable to most consumers. In addition, an ox is a castrated bull,” Red Bull said in the lawsuit. “Applicant’s Old Ox marks so much resemble Red Bull so as to cause confusion, mistake or deception among purchasers, users and the public, thereby damaging Red Bull.”

I'll give Red Bull credit: it takes a giant set of balls to file a straight-faced trademark complaint that in part centers around your competitor's name's lack of cajones. Beyond that, this entire thing is monumentally stupid. First, any moron in a hurry is too moronic to know what makes an ox an ox, rather than a bull. After all, these are morons we're talking about. Morons with shit to do and no time to sit around and even learn how to spell "bovine" nevermind understand what the hell it means.

Oh, and the similarity of the logos? Pffffffft.


See the similarities in the logos? Because if you do, no you don't, and also shut up. This is pure, unnecessary, downright flabbergasting bullying on the part of Red Bull, which I had thought gives you wings, but apparently might actually give you IQ-point-sucking amoebas in your brain. Fortunately, Old Ox Brewery ain't buying this red bullshit and has instead posted its letter to Red Bull, in which they essentially kindly ask its adversary to eat a bag of castration-remnants.

“Basically you are holding us hostage with a list of demands that, if agreed to, would severely limit our ability to use our brand. Demands like, never use the color red, silver, or blue; never use red with any bovine term or image; and never produce soft drinks. Do you own the color red? What about fuchsia, scarlet, crimson, or mauve? Are you planting your flag in the color wheel and claiming those shades for Red Bull? Do you claim exclusive rights to all things bovine? Do you plan to herd all heifers, cows, yaks, buffalo, bison, and steer into your intellectual property corral, too?”

Huh, turns out these ox have balls, after all...

Filed Under: brewery, drinks, trademark
Companies: old ox brewery, red bull