![]() Since the 1990s, SweetWater had made a beer called 420 Extra Pale Ale. in Atlanta demanding that the Northern California brewing giant stop using the marijuana code "420" in the cryptic artwork and messaging found on many Lagunitas beer labels. In July 2013, Lagunitas Brewing Co.'s owner, Tony Magee, received a cease-and-desist order from SweetWater Brewing Co. They combined their beers in a blend and named it Collaboration Not Litigation. Still, they took the opportunity to come to a clever compromise. Nor were they particularly worried about it. Vinnie Cilurzo, co-owner and brewmaster of Russian River Brewing Co., says that neither he nor Adam Avery knew who had coined the name. When two large breweries with broad distribution are involved, the matter is almost always settled, sometimes amicably.įor example, when the brewers at Avery in Colorado and Russian River in California discovered that they each had a beer named Salvation, they met at an annual Colorado beer festival to talk it out. Name overlaps may not matter as long as the beers are sold in different regions, but in such cases, Moon says, would-be conflicts often go unresolved. The Salt Big Breweries Move Into Small Beer Town - And Business Is Hopping "There are only so many words and names that make sense with beer, so it's not surprising that many people will come up with the same ideas," Moon says. Yet, with tens of thousands of brands in the American beer market, it happens all the time. Moon tells The Salt she has never seen a brewery intentionally infringe upon another's trademarked name, image or font style. For newcomers to the increasingly crowded industry of more than 3,000 breweries, finding names for beers, or even themselves, is increasingly hard to do without risking a legal fight.Ĭandace Moon, aka The Craft Beer Attorney, is a San Diego lawyer who specializes in helping brewers trademark ideas and also settle disputes. Virtually every large city, notable landscape feature, creature and weather pattern of North America - as well as myriad other words, concepts and images - has been snapped up and trademarked as the name of either a brewery or a beer. Sacramento? El Niño? Marlin? Grizzly? Sorry, they're all taken. ![]() That's making it harder for newcomers to name that brew without risking a legal fight.Ĭolumbia? Taken. With so many craft breweries now in operation, just about every beer name you can imagine is taken.
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