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Lowndes Client Corner Podcast Episode 1 - DraftLine Technologies, The Business of Beer
This year, the INTA Annual Meeting lands in sunny San Diego, California—a city known not only for its breathtaking coastline, laid-back vibe, and rich cultural diversity, but also for its dynamic landscape of iconic brands...more
The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed a district court’s summary judgment denial and determination that the definition of “beer” (which encompassed “other versions and combinations” of beer and malt...more
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
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
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
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
Hard seltzer first hit the marketplace about five years ago and rapidly grew in popularity with sales exceeding $4.5 billion in 2020. Wanting to ride the wave of success, many companies have introduced hard seltzers into...more
In prior installments of our series on branding considerations and trademark disputes in the beverage alcohol industry, we examined best practices relating to trademark selection and searching to hopefully avoid branding...more
Over the past weeks, the world has been carefully monitoring news about a new strain of “coronavirus” respiratory infection, which has sickened thousands, caused dozens of deaths, and resulted in a virtual shut-down of...more
The January 2020 issue of Sterne Kessler's MarkIt to Market® newsletter discusses the following topics: - The TTAB's affirmation to refuse a mark to distillery Jos. A. Magnus & Co.; - Six trademark and copyright cases...more
MillerCoors (beer maker of Coors Light and Miller Lite) and Anheuser-Busch (“AB”) (competing beer maker of Bud Light) have been embroiled in a contentious federal district court litigation in the W.D. of Wisconsin since March...more
Avoiding Trademark Disputes in the Alcoholic Beverage Industry- In the first installment of our series on trademark disputes in the alcoholic beverage industry, we identified the risks facing industry participants on the...more
Trademark Basics – USPTO - The United States Patent & Trademark Office (“USPTO”) put together this quick resource guide....more
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
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
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
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
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
Beer and wine are related goods for trademark purposes. Right? We’ve seen that truism announced by the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) time and time again. So, do you really have to prove it from scratch in every...more
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
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
GE Salmon Bill Introduced in U.S. Senate - A bipartisan group of U.S. senators has introduced a bill that would require labeling of genetically engineered (GE) salmon and independent scientific review of the U.S. Food and...more
You have worked hard, you are proud of your beer, and you want the market, if not the world, to know that it is your product. At the end of the creative process, like any other artist or craftsperson, you have the urge to...more
By all accounts, as we head into 2017, the craft beer industry will continue to experience tremendous growth. This is due to primarily to increasing consumer demand. Also, favorable legislation in some states should help fuel...more
Just in time for the holiday season, we present our third annual Trademark Year in Wine and Beer, a wrap-up of alcohol-related trademark and trademark-ish disputes dating back to December 2015, when we published our last...more