Trademarks, Beer | JD Supra

Brewed in San Diego: Trademark Lessons from America's Craft Beer Capital and Beyond

Foley Hoag LLP - Making Your Mark on 5/13/2025

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

Taking the High Road: Ambiguity Regarding “Versions” of Beer Precludes Summary Judgment

McDermott Will & Schulte on 4/5/2024

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

Trademark Disputes Continue to Brew

Proskauer - Minding Your Business on 4/14/2022

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

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

Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick, LLP on 3/29/2022

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

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

Ward and Smith, P.A. on 3/9/2022

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

Anatomy Of A Beer Label: Part II

Husch Blackwell LLP on 8/4/2021

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

Beer: You Know It When You Taste It, Or Maybe Not

Weintraub Tobin on 5/28/2021

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

Steer Clear With Your Beer Branding-UPDATED

Husch Blackwell LLP on 8/24/2020

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

MarkIt to Market® - January 2020: Grab Some Limes? What to do When Your Brand Goes Viral - and Not in a Good Way

Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox P.L.L.C. on 2/12/2020

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

MarkIt to Market® - January 2020

Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox P.L.L.C. on 2/4/2020

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

From Corn-Gate to You-Stole-My-Trade-Secrets-Gate (Maybe): Defendant Beer Maker Moves to Add a Counterclaim for Trade Secrets...

Orrick - Trade Secrets Group on 11/25/2019

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

Steer Clear With Your Beer Branding

Husch Blackwell LLP on 7/29/2019

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 Your Beer: Federal Trademark Resources

Harris Beach Murtha PLLC on 1/24/2019

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

Trademark Search Resources - Trademark Your Beer

Harris Beach Murtha PLLC on 1/22/2019

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

Can I Use Song Lyrics in a Beer Name?

Harris Beach Murtha PLLC on 1/18/2019

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

Choosing Your Brewery/Beer Names and Trademark Searching

Harris Beach Murtha PLLC on 1/12/2019

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

The Importance of Trademark Registration for Breweries

Harris Beach Murtha PLLC on 1/8/2019

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

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

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP on 12/14/2018

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

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