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Breweries Trademarks

Dunlap Bennett & Ludwig PLLC

How to Protect a Trademark or Service Mark for a Brewery or Beer Name

With excellent craft beers, breweries have become highly popular in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area and throughout the United States and are most often visited during spring, summer, and fall. The brewers regularly...more

Foster Garvey PC

Stone Brewing Co. LLC v. Molson Coors Brewing Company – Ruling in Trademark Infringement Brewery Battle Serves Up Important...

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On March 25, 2022, after a contentious, four year-long court battle, a jury awarded Stone Brewing Co. $56 million in damages against beer conglomerate MillerCoors, now Molson Coors, finding that MillerCoors infringed the...more

Proskauer - Minding Your Business

Trademark Disputes Continue to Brew

Stone Brewing has used STONE as a trademark since the early 1990s, and has since become the largest brewery in Southern California and ninth largest craft brewery in the U.S.  Fast forward to 2017, when MillerCoors rebranded...more

Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick, LLP

Intellectual Property Law News Alert: Craft Brewer Stone Brewing Co. wins $56 Million Jury Verdict for Trademark Infringement...

A jury awarded a $56 million verdict for trademark infringement to an independent craft brewer against the world’s fifth largest beer company on March 25, 2022. The verdict highlights the damage to a smaller business when a...more

Ward and Smith, P.A.

The Fun and Whimsical (but Crowded) Landscape of Beer Names Part 2

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What's in a name?  Beer names can be funny, creative, and whimsical.  But with the growing popularity of craft brewing, it's becoming increasingly difficult to come up with a name that isn't already taken. In Part 1 of...more

Ward and Smith, P.A.

The Fun and Whimsical (but Crowded) Landscape of Beer Names Part 1

Ward and Smith, P.A. on

In addition to all its natural beauty and opportunities for outdoor recreation, Western North Carolina has more lately become known for its abundance of excellent craft breweries. ...more

Knobbe Martens

The Battle of Brooklyn: Lack of Concrete Injury and Prior Collaboration Doom TTAB Actions

Knobbe Martens on

BROOKLYN BREWERY CORPORATION V. BROOKLYN BREW SHOP, LLC - Before Judges Dyk, O’Malley, and Hughes. Appeal from the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. Summary: A challenger must demonstrate an injury in fact to have...more

Husch Blackwell LLP

Anatomy Of A Beer Label: Part II

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Aside from the regulatory requirements imposed on beer labels, as discussed in the Anatomy of a Beer Label: Part I post on COLAs, brewers should consider protecting the trademarks featured on their beer labels...more

Ward and Smith, P.A.

Hey, Careful, Man, There’s a Beverage Here! TTB, CBD, and the Production of Beer

Ward and Smith, P.A. on

So you brew beer? Cool. So you want to brew a beer with cannabidiol? Even cooler. Don’t know what cannabidiol is? That's ok. You probably know it as "CBD" – the highly popular cannabinoid that was recently legalized by...more

Harris Beach PLLC

Trademark Your Beer: Federal Trademark Resources

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Trademark Basics – USPTO - The United States Patent & Trademark Office (“USPTO”) put together this quick resource guide....more

Harris Beach PLLC

Trademark Search Resources - Trademark Your Beer

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Beer review sites like BeerAdvocate, RateBeer, and, Untappd are an excellent resource for determining the availability of trademarks.  However, just because something pops in your search don’t automatically assume that means...more

Shook, Hardy & Bacon L.L.P.

Food & Beverage Litigation Update l January 2019

LEGISLATION, REGULATIONS & STANDARDS - USDA Releases GMO Labeling Standard - The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Agricultural Marketing Service has released the final National Bioengineered Food Disclosure...more

Harris Beach PLLC

Can I Use Song Lyrics in a Beer Name?

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Beer and music go together – always have and always will. Lots of brewers draw inspiration from song and many have used lyrics or even titles to name beers or even their breweries. For example, the superlative Singlecut...more

Harris Beach PLLC

Beer Trademarks – Office Actions, Opposition, and Cancellation

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After you file a trademark application for your brewery name or a beer name there are a couple different paths the application could take, not all of them good. This article will focus on some of those paths....more

Harris Beach PLLC

Choosing Your Brewery/Beer Names and Trademark Searching

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There are several grounds upon which an application for a federal trademark can be rejected, and I will discuss a couple of them here. One important ground is known as mere descriptiveness. One is not permitted to register a...more

Harris Beach PLLC

The Importance of Trademark Registration for Breweries

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So you’ve got a brewery or you’re planning to start a brewery, what are the typical issues you worry about? Financing, federal and state licensing, recipe formulation, hop contracts, distribution, employees, mash pH, and a...more

Holland & Knight LLP

Food and Beverage Law Update: December 2018

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Regulation - FDA-USDA Propose Joint Regulatory Framework for Cell-Grown Meat - On Nov. 16, 2018, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued a joint statement...more

Mintz - Trademark & Copyright Viewpoints

Brewery Defeats Trademark Opposition by Conservative Public Figure Phyllis Schlafly

Relatives of the late conservative political activist, Phyllis Schlafly, lost their appeal to prevent the Saint Louis Brewery, LLC (“the Brewery”) from trademarking the Schlafly name in connection with various beer products...more

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP

Distilling the Relatedness of Spirits, Wines and Beer – The Lack of a Bright-Line Rule - Food, Beverage & Hospitality Alert

The alcohol industry has seen a veritable explosion in trademark filings from craft and independent brewers, distillers and wineries. This upsurge means trademarks are coming into conflict more and more often in the...more

Shook, Hardy & Bacon L.L.P.

Food & Beverage Litigation Update | August 2018 #4

LEGISLATION, REGULATIONS & STANDARDS - Mass. Governor Vetoes Raw Milk Bill - Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker has vetoed a state environmental bond bill containing a provision that would allow raw milk sales at farm...more

Bowditch & Dewey

Six Things You Didn’t Know About Trademarks

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Brewers can protect the uniqueness of their brands of brew and brewery names by filing for federal registration of their trademarks. Here are a few things about the process that are good to know...more

Bowditch & Dewey

Following the Stone Brewing-MillerCoors Trademark Dispute: MillerCoors Responds

Bowditch & Dewey on

A recent blog post chronicled the trademark infringement action Stone Brewing had initiated against MillerCoors for its marketing of Keystone Light, which allegedly emphasized the word “STONE” in a confusing manner....more

Bowditch & Dewey

Like a Rolling STONE: Stone Brewing’s Trademark Dispute with MillerCoors

Bowditch & Dewey on

Stone Brewing—widely known for its popular IPA and other craft brews—recently cast the first stone in a trademark dispute with the conglomerate that owns Keystone. In its complaint for trademark infringement, Stone Brewing...more

Bowditch & Dewey

Worcester Business Journal Publishes "10 Things I Know About Opening a Brewery"

Bowditch & Dewey on

10) Choose your name and logo carefully. The end goal is to be able to trademark your identity. In order to do that, you have to be distinguishable from others. Do your research and be creative. 9) Size. Be Goldilocks. Like...more

Smith Debnam Narron Drake Saintsing & Myers,...

What’s In a Name: The Bell’s v. Innovation Trademark Naming Dispute

Selecting a unique, memorable, and descriptive name for your next beer release is becoming a daunting task in the increasingly-crowded craft brewing landscape. ...more

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