Interesting PM...

Now, I don't know if I should have researched using the name more when I just casually named my basement brewing escapades...but I received this PM today. Struck me as BS at first...but then realized (or think) it must be legit. I understand (I guess) where he is coming from...however, I am FAR from a threat to opening a commercial operation though!

Removed PM as courtesy to the sender and forum rules...don't need to be out of line or piss anyone off, that wasn't my intent

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Basically, I was contacted by the owner of a commercial brewery that has the same name as my 'make believe' basement brewery for which I have in my signature. In a fairly nice and non-aggressive manner he indicated that it is trademarked/copyrighted and they wanted me to be aware if I ever intended on taking my operation commercial (in a nutshell).

Has this ever happened to anyone before? I actually think it's pretty comical now...with 3 kids under 4, the mortgage and daycare which has eaten through savings...opening a brewery from my financial situation is about as much of a possibility as me becoming pregnant!

it is pretty funny, but I think he took the right approach...protect himself while acknowledging that he's probably coming off as a bit over the top...

I think it was a pretty cool way of letting you know "just in case" you were gonna take it up another notch, and kinda funny considering the current likelihood you will be starting up a brewery.

Haha They are just covering their a$$

Do you think A$$hole brewing company, LLC has already been trademarked?

If you were thinking of going commercial (which apparently you're not), he would actually be doing you a favor by letting you know in advance that the name is already taken. No harm, no foul, but I can see how it may seem ridiculous under the circumstances.

What's funny to me is that everyone says the brewing company didn't the right thing here by letting him know (I think so too) but when bells did this to northern brewer over their two hearted clone everyone was condemning them.

Back on topic, guess that means you picked a good name for your brewery haha, just mix it up a bit if you go pro

Remember that with trademarks, the holder has to show that they attempted to protect the trademark or else the second user can possibly gain the legal right to that trademark. I think that was more the goal of this communication.

The e-mail was a very nice gesture. Obviously, they didn't know whether or not you had any intentions of ever going pro. Creating a brewing company <Edit:>Name</> could definitely be considered a sign that someone has at least a slight intention of doing so.

The Two Hearted issue seems like a completely different issue to me.

The proprietor of a local micro-winery told me that he received correspondence from a California-based winery's lawyer that he must change the name of his winery... Luckily he was able to get away with simply changing the spelling but it would have sucked if he had to change the name entirely. I think it's cool that he took. The time to inform you in a passive way.

ummm... Why + how do most major cities have a bar named "Cheers"? As seen here: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Cheers+Bar+Wisconsin ? I count 5 on the 1st page and that is just for 1 state!!! I think you can misspell a word, add in something else to the name like using a zero for an O and the other folks are SOL.

I think it's ridiculous given this is a homebrew forum. So much so that I'm going to run it in my signature for a while. That is if I have illin8's permission.

Edit: FAIL - I guess I don't know how to do a signature

shelly_belly said:

I think it's ridiculous given this is a homebrew forum. So much so that I'm going to run it in my signature for a while. That is if I have illin8's permission.

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QFT, I deleted a large portion of my reply because it was pretty crass. You put nicely into words what I could not...

shelly_belly said:

Edit: FAIL - I guess I don't know how to do a signature

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User CP > In the column on the left will be the Edit Signature link...

I'm impressed by the tact of that letter. Nicely done by the pro brewer.

very respectable IMO

bluemoose said:

Do you think A$$hole brewing company, LLC has already been trademarked?

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My sentiments exactly! Doesn't this idiot have anything better to do than screw around threatening a menial home brewer. Not only that, but apparently he pays someone to surf the web looking for encroachments on his trademark. You would think that he would be putting his energy into the brewery and the beer. I think it should be Petty ***** Brewing Co.

Perhaps we should all use the South County Brewing handle. The guys head would probably explode. I would write back to him and ask him to send you some beer for evaluation. If it's bad beer, you might have a case against him! Yeah, that's the ticket.

As someone who has received many C&D letters, this is by far the nicest I have ever read.

Catt22 said:

My sentiments exactly! Doesn't this idiot have anything better to do than screw around threatening a menial home brewer. Not only that, but apparently he pays someone to surf the web looking for encroachments on his trademark. You would think that he would be putting his energy into the brewery and the beer. I think it should be Petty ***** Brewing Co.

Perhaps we should all use the South County Brewing handle. The guys head would probably explode. I would write back to him and ask him to send you some beer for evaluation. If it's bad beer, you might have a case against him! Yeah, that's the ticket.

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It's the pro brewer's responsibility to send that letter. As a businessman, he must or forfeit the trademark through inaction. I don't think it could have been handled in a nicer way and, frankly, I'm surprised at your comments.

Zamial said:

User CP > In the column on the left will be the Edit Signature link...

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I tried that but it's not working for me. Thanks, anyway.

Edit: There it goes. all I did was add a null line before the text

bluemoose said:

Do you think A$$hole brewing company, LLC has already been trademarked?

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Would their flagship beer be a brown ale?

Yeah, cool that he sent you an FYI, rather than taking the Monster/Hansen route.

passedpawn said:

It's the pro brewer's responsibility to send that letter. As a businessman, he must or forfeit the trademark through inaction. I don't think it could have been handled in a nicer way and, frankly, I'm surprised at your comments.

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illin8 is obviously a home brewer and not a commercial brewer. This is a home brew forum. What you say would probably apply for a commercial operation, but it's stupid to bother a hobbyist brewer with this stuff and the risk to his trademark is zero IMO. No offense to illin8, but the name isn't all that hot anyway. OK for a home brewery for sure, but not very creative for a commercial operation. illin8 maybe should change it to The South Country Brewing Co. and officially register the name.

Wow...gotta love this forum, didn't think it would spark this much interest. I agree though, I didn't take it as threatening or condescending, I can understand where he is coming from...just thought it was odd that he feels a basement homebrewer such as myself could be a potential threat.

But think about it, if you were him and you had established a reputable brewery and were paying an attorney to look out for your interests...wouldn't you try to communicate non-threatingly to someone if they were using your exact name on the internet, not knowing to what capacity they are operating? Given the popularity in breweries these days, I think it's reasonable...

I responded to him and told him I understood and jokingly asked for a six pack for my troubles (joking)...he replied and offered to send me a bomber of their Amber ale, a very nice gesture.

All in all I found it more interesting than anything else and JR, if you or your attorney are reading this, thanks for being courteous. I meant no harm in posting your PM in a public forum, just wanted to share this with other homebrewers and to see if anyone had ever had this happen to them.

As a guy who is planning on going pro some day, I like the way he handled it. if someone else was using my brewery name professionally, I'd be happy to hear about it now rather then after i've started applying for licenses and such. Plus, he's gonna send you a bomber just to be a nice guy. sounds like a pretty good businessman to me who's looking to protect himself and gain a new customer at the same time.

Almost all breweries out there were started by a homebrewer with a dream. It's not at all over the top for someone to assume it as a possibility especially if they are not aware of the homebrew forum meme of naming your home brewery.

I spend a good bit of time on this forum and an RV'ers forum and it never ceases to amaze mo how some people can take a rather benign statement and interpret it as something caustic

illin8 - I'm glad to hear you took it the way it was meant and even responded to the guy in a way that encouraged him to offer you a bomber - nicely done!

bomber + free brewery tour?:rockin:

It's not that he saw you as a threat, he was just doing his due diligence in covering his ass. All businesses have lawyer(s) on retainer and this is just one of the routine things they have to do. They have to do this or they might wake up one day to find themselves on the receiving end of such a letter; you never know.

Seems like a standup way for him to handle things!

Time to discuss a franchise with him!

I, too, agree that this was handled in a very professional way. If Illini8 WAS planning on going pro, it would certainly benefit him to know about this ahead of time before spending hard earned beer money for no reason.

I think it was handled quite tastefully. Yes, this is a homebrew forum, but if you've been here long, you'd know going pro from this forum isn't exactly uncommon.

Sounds like both parties took the high road. Nice to see today. When I came up with my fictitious name below for my basement brewing operation I did a google search to make sure there was nothing like it, even though I have no intentions of moving out of expanding my "operation".

If you go pro, you could always go with "South County Brew House" or South County Brew Werks"

For anyone who is interested, you can actually go to the Trademark Bureau's website and do a search to see if your "name" is in there.

IrregularPulse said:

I think it was handled quite tastefully. Yes, this is a homebrew forum, but if you've been here long, you'd know going pro from this forum isn't exactly uncommon.

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My thought also.

Agreed that things were very professional. As stated many homebrewers may at some point make it to the big leagues. If thats the case, you would have found out when you tried to register your brewery name that it was already taken. What if... My only other thought is, which of our homebrewing members is his attorney?

This was handled about as well as it could have been by both parties as far as I can tell. It is true that the pro brewer has a mandate to inform - he's obviously not particularly thrilled about it, but it is something he has to do. illin8 I think took it the right way, and it seems most on here see it that way. I'm sure the pro is not a multimillionaire, just another one of use who decided to take the plunge, and so my hat is off to him. Cut the guy some slack.

That was a very nice, pleasant and thoughtful PM in my opinion.

I agree with Pappers.

passedpawn said:

It's the pro brewer's responsibility to send that letter. As a businessman, he must or forfeit the trademark through inaction. I don't think it could have been handled in a nicer way and, frankly, I'm surprised at your comments.

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I agree. I think he makes it quite clear this is a cost of his doing business. Hey guy, just letting you know I was here first. Don't start with this name and lay out a bunch of money for tee shirts cause I own the name. I Would do the same for someone using my business name. Who needs to get lawyers involved down the road.
Look what happend between Polar and Coca-Cola, and the bear.

Handled perfectly. The brewery made notice that this was no threat right up front. He informed the Homebrewer that the name was already taken and that the brewery recognizes the sometimes Homebrewers go pro. This was his way of letting the Hoembrewer know in advance that the names already used. This could potentially save the Homebrewer a LOT of headache and cash if by chance he did decide to open a business.

The brewery could have stuck their head in the sand and waited until the Homebrewer started his business before saying anything, thereby wasting tons of time and money on a necessary lawsuit.

There was no threat and no indication that the homebrewer need do anything.

If it was that easy for his lawyer to find the name in a Google search, then anybody can find it that easy. Lets say someone had their beer and liked it. They go home and do a search and come across a homebrewers sig saying "Yada yada yada brewery". With the stigma surrounding homebrewing by non homebrewers, the person could say "These guys make beer in their bathtub, i aint drinkin that no more". His thinking could be that he doesnt want a hobby brewer losing him customers. Although the hobby brewer might be making better beer than his. IMO he should have hand written the letter and stapled it to the side of a mixed case of his full lineup. THAT would have been sexy.