Canadian Shutdown

[bleuburke]

I am a Big Sky Brew fan, especially of Moose Drool, and on their web site they have indicated that the Canadian brewery for Moosehead is trying to 'ban' the word 'Moose' from all North American beer names.
Is this possible? How can we help support our mountain friends at Big Sky Brewery?

[hnrblbrbrn]

Let the Moose loose

[paul84043]

I don't think there's any way they can do that, a coypright only protects the specific word or phrase. It's stupid and unrealistic to think that you own every derivative thereof. That would be like Disneyland trying to say that no-one can every use the word Mouse because they coyprighted Mickey....

Harley Davidson tried to copy protect the sound that thier engines make, it was thrown out of court, it's just too ambiguous.

[steveh]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by paul84043
[B]I don't think there's any way they can do that, a coypright only protects the specific word or phrase. It's stupid and unrealistic to think that you own every derivative thereof.

I live near LIBERTYville, Illinois - home to Mickey Finn's brewpub. Early on in their history they brewed a beer called Libertyville Ale. Consequently they received a "cease and disist" sort of letter from none other than the likes of Mr. Fritz Maytag saying that the name of their beer came too close to the name of his Liberty Ale.

Now, I have nothing at all against Fritz, and enjoy his Anchor line of beers quite a bit - but there is no way that I am going to mistaken the Libertyville Ale from a small brewpub for his Liberty Ale from San Francisco.

Mickey Finn's bottles only one of its styles, and that is only sold (very) locally. They certainly are no threat to Anchor Brewing in anyone's eyes but Mr. Maytag's. Now Moose Head and Moose Drool? Well -- the drool comes from the mouth, which is attached to the head -- yeah, I guess I could mistaken the two in the store, "Damn - I bought the WRONG beer! This stuff has more flavor, body and character - what was I THINKING?!"

;)

S.

[Richard English]

Anheuser Busch have been trying for years to stop the Czech brewer, Budvar, from using the term "Budweiser" or "Bud" for the beers. They have succeeded in the USA but in Europe have had little success. In the UK we actually have a choice of two different kinds of Budweiser: the flavoursome drink from Budvar or the carbonated gnat's p from A-B. The House of Lords (our highest legal authority), recently threw out A-B's most recent claim and told them not to waste the court's time.

Now there's to be a high-quality Bud on sale here around Christmas (it's been brewed for some time but needs to lager for 400 days). And there's nothing that A-B can do about it!

[paul84043]

The "Bud" thing gets a bit more messy since it is an exact duplicate of Budweiser's coyprighted symbol...I wonder how they have managed to defend themselves for this long?

I work in a factory where we manufacture X-ray tube inserts, you know, those lovely machines at the airport that erase your film and your computer hard drive (that was a joke thak god!!!) we are also a huge aftermarket supplier to OEM systems, so part of our business is taking a customers product, reverse engineering it, and remanufacturing it with the necessary changes to avoid copyright and patent infringement....it is an extremely obscure and very risky business...the penalties are high and far reaching, but if you can get away with it, the use of a familiar name can get you alot of sales...

[MmmBeer]

Patent law and copyright law are very different. Copyright law is not as internationally recoginzed and therefore does not cross borders as easily, as is displayed in the "budweiser" example.

[Ninkasi]

Steveh wrote: Consequently they received a "cease and disist" sort of letter from none other than the likes of Mr. Fritz Maytag saying that the name of their beer came too close to the name of his Liberty Ale.


A brewpub I was involved with a few years back (Steamworks Brewing Co. - Vancouver, BC) received a similar letter from Fritz Maytag. Seems the 'Steam' in our name had him steamed. Name aside, he was even more concerned about us brewing a Steam style beer, as his Anchor Steam had exclusive rights to that style (at the time...I believe this has changed).

Steamworks remains, and they have stayed away from any reference to 'steam' in the brews.

[fretlessman71]

Thought I'd be the first to say Hi, Ninkasi. You'll find that just about everybody's very friendly around here. Salud!

[Ninkasi]

Cheers fretlessman, greetings appreciated.

I'm looking forward to threading with the best of beer:)

[Richard English]

Ninkasi, is this your picture?

http://www.camra.org.uk/SHWebClass.ASP?WCI=ShowDoc&DocID=2430

And if so, will you be at the next GBBF?!

[Ninkasi]

I was wondering how long it would take someone to post 'that' picture. Less then 12 hours after registration...very impressive Richard!

Hate to disappoint, but I'm a blonde:(

[Richard English]

But then, I live in England, have been a CAMRA member for years, and attend the GBBF regularly (se my post elsewhere)

[steveh]

Originally posted by Ninkasi
A brewpub I was involved with a few years back (Steamworks Brewing Co. - Vancouver, BC) received a similar letter from Fritz Maytag. Seems the 'Steam' in our name had him steamed. Name aside, he was even more concerned about us brewing a Steam style beer, as his Anchor Steam had exclusive rights to that style (at the time...I believe this has changed).

Steamworks remains, and they have stayed away from any reference to 'steam' in the brews.

That sounds like Fritz - I've heard that he's tried strong-arming quite a few brew oriented businesses that have, even the slightest, similar sounding names or names of brews to his. It's really too bad that he feels he has to be this way, because his product can usually speak for itself.

Kind of difficult for a place called Steamworks *not* to reference steam in a title anywhere. I wonder if Steamboat, Colorado has a brewpub?

S.

[Richard English]

In addition to Anchor Steam, there are at least four other beers with "steam" in their title - three from the UK and one from Belgium.

Alphabetically they are:

Hook Norton Steam Beer
4.4% ABV

Newquay Steam Bitter
4% ABV

Shepherd Neame Sun & Planet Steam Ale
6% ABV

Vapeur La Folie (Belgian)
8.5% ABV

If Fritz Maytag decides that he wants to try to act like A-B in the UK then I suspect he'll get the same reception as did A-B. Our House of Lords threw out their action that sought to prevent Budvar from calling their beers Budweiser and told them to stop wasting the court's time!

It would be an expensive lesson for Anchor steam if they try it!