Craft Brewers Are Running Out Of Names, And Into Legal Spats

Npr ^ | 1-5-15

[InvisibleChurch]

Columbia? Taken. Mississippi? Taken. Sacramento? El Niño? Marlin? Grizzly? Sorry, they're all taken.

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. 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.

Candace Moon, aka The Craft Beer Attorney, is a San Diego lawyer who specializes in helping brewers trademark ideas and also settle disputes. Moon tells The Salt she has never seen a brewery intentionally infringe upon another's trademarked name, image or font style. Yet, with tens of thousands of brands in the American beer market, it happens all the time.

"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.

[GeronL]

Panther Whiz was taken already

[Vince Ferrer]

[a fool in paradise]

Schlitz Malt Liquor was kind enough to put a picture of the factory right on the cans.

[Secret Agent Man]

Like the phone book listing wars,

AAA Beer

[Viking2002]

Here you go......8.0% ABV. 24 oz. cans. Pure ghetto juice:

[a fool in paradise]

AA Beer, the favorite of those trying to quit?

[Secret Agent Man]

AAA Beer, Don’t Drive without it.

[Right Brother]

[a fool in paradise]

17%ABV, 17 malts, 17 hops

[GeronL]

Is there an A+Bert brand beer?

[dfwgator]

"It's the one you never see coming."

[Defiant]

One of my local favorites. The brewer also makes one called "Me So Honey", and I am surprised the Vietnamese haven't complained.

[a fool in paradise]

Is that honey beer made with Miso Soup?

[Olog-hai]

Ironic that the article author’s name is Alastair Bland.

[twister881]

I wanted to trademark “Old Tampon” but discovered an entity named The Mooch Brewery already had taken it.

[PAR35]

Candy Moon

That would make a good name for a craft beer.

[PAR35]

Pure ghetto juice

Great name for an all natural malt liquor.

[xp38]

Free Republic Beer! Better trademark that pronto Jim!

[Lurker]

Stuned Beeber Brewing.

[NorthMountain]

I hesitate to guess at what that one tastes like ...