Interesting read. IMHO, the brewery is in the wrong here and should have sought legal counsel before naming themselves "Strange Brewing." At least they should have spent a few minutes looking to see who has trademarked a similar name. Heck, it's easy to check these things for yourself (for free). Just go to the
US Patent and Trademark Office website and check for yourself. I am sure the brewery did this. I wonder what they did with the results.
I work for a big company and have received a C&D letter for a product we named. End result was that we changed our product's name because we were too close in the name we chose. Different name, different letters, too close. I learned a few things during that unpleasant time.
Basically, you can name your product with an existing word/name/phrase as long as the exisitng mark is not in your market space. For example, take McDonalds. You can have a plumbing supply store, kite company, sign manufacturer. No problem: different market space. However, if you try and name a restaurant McDonalds you may be in violation of of Mickeydee's mark. They may or may not defend their mark but no good attorney that you consult as you are beginning the process of opening your doors would advise you say that that name is a good one.
Why do people care? The argument is that a company can spend a lot of money establishing brand equity. McDonalds is a bad example (because their food sucks) but if you take the name 'iPhone' a lot of people equate that with a quality product. So, if you happen to be in the electronics business and you name something close to that, Apple may contend that you are using 'their good name' and brand equity to equate quality with your product. I'm not saying that is the case here but that is why companies spend money defending their mark(s).
I used big company examples to make my points and some may think these are just examples of large, greedy, soul-less companies. Fact is, trademark law doesn't care about the size of a company. Same rules apply, company size doesn't matter - a mark is a mark.
Strange Brew was the name of a (good) movie and the HB shop used the name. My guess is that the HB shop was granted the mark because the makers of the movie let the mark expire, or didn't care enough, or were unaware of the small shop and/or it was in a different market. I dunno. Regarding the HB shop using the GD's dancing bear, GD Enterprises also probably doesn't care for the same reasons (except expiration). However, if an up-n-coming band (vs a garage GD-cover band) tried to use the dancing bear or Steal Your Face logo, I bet they'd respond. The decision to defend (or not defend) a mark depends upon how valuable the holder of the mark feels their trademark (name) is to their company and livelhood.
As stated previously, the C&D letter is standard practice. The hope in writing this letter is to avoid expensive litigation while at the same time implying (because it is written in 'legal-ease') that you should take this seriously - kinda like a little dog growling at a big dog.
Regarding the C&D BTW, the Brewery did something that was not cool: they tried to use their response as a marketing/advertising activity. They should not have done that. If they consulted an attorney in crafting their reply, he/she would have certainly told them to leave out the fact that they have won medals. What does that have to do with replying to a C&D letter for trademark violation?
This is unfortunate but I feel that the Brewery unwisely or unwittingly chose that name. The HB shop is under no obligation to help the brewery. The downside to all of this is that both parties will likely spend a lot of $$ and that is tough in this economy. I know a lot people think the HB shop owner is being a DB. Fair enough. However, it's gotta be tough to be in his shoes but I'm guessing the HB shop and its name are his sole livelihood.
Safe harbor statement: I live in MA but I am not a Strange Brew customer - that shop is too far away and I frequent more local shops. This all just struck a chord with me because my company lived through this a bunch of years ago.