Bell’s Brewery sends cease and desist letter to Northern Brewer

[bmsteele]

"Northern Brewer was sent a cease and desist letter yesterday afternoon from an attorney representing Bell’s Brewery over the name of one of their home brew kits, 'Three Hearted Ale.'”

Article continues here: http://www.brewbound.com/headlines/northern-brewer-sent-cease-and-desist-letter/

NB's Facebook post: http://www.facebook.com/northern.brewer.ltd/posts/10150439303645508

 

[bovineblitz]

booooooooooooooooooo

 

[Zen_Brew]

Awwwww. Booooo to Bells. They are not "required" to defend their patent.

 

[Hoodweisen]

Change it to Heartless ale

 

[redalert]

That's not gonna win em any friends.

 

[ruffdeezy]

The kit formerly known as three hearted ale

im sure there has been quite a backlash by now, even on the brewery's own facebook page, that they will reverse course

 

[BoxofRain]

Now featuring "Three Fart Ale"

 

[EyePeeEh]

I was going to say "cease and desist ale," but "heartless" is way more appropriate.

 

[rico567]

....following Apple's lead, how about a "Sosumi" ale?

 

[Bacchusuga]

This is great advertising for Northern Brewer. Bell's is basically saying that they are scared by how close the beer is to theirs. I'm going to buy a kit now.

 

[Revvy]

But have you actually read NB's comments on their FB page? They're being pretty gratious about it.

For the record: 1, we're going to change the name of the kit (but not the recipe), and 2, we still love Bell's and their beers. We understand the reasoning behind the request and will happily comply; but like many of you, we thought it was odd that they didn't contact us directly first (or contact us before now, seeing as how this kit's been in our roster for about 10 years).

Mainly we just wanted to let everyone know that one of our most popular beer kits would be changing names, and why. Look for the official announcement later this week: the name will be different, but the recipe will not. This kit will always be our homebrewer's homage to Blank-Blanked Blank. ; ) Thanks for all the suggestions!

And the most recent one...

Hey everybody - just so it's said, we do not any any way support a boycott of Bell's products. One more time: we love Bell's and their beers. We respect their trademark, and they're not asking us to do anything but change the name of one of our kits - like we said before, we will happily comply, and a new name is forthcoming. Now, I for one am going to RNWHAHS (relax, not worry, have a HopSlam).

 

[brew2enjoy]

This is great advertising for Northern Brewer. Bell's is basically saying that they are scared by how close the beer is to theirs. I'm going to buy a kit now.

My thoughts exactly!

 

[jbrookeiv]

I totally understand it on Bell's side. To keep a trademark, you have to defend it. Pretty simple. They're not suing NB, just officially asking them to change the name. I will definitely continue to support BOTH Bell's and NB.

 

[Revvy]

I totally understand it on Bell's side. To keep a trademark, you have to defend it. Pretty simple. They're not suing NB, just officially asking them to change the name. I will definitely continue to support BOTH Bell's and NB.

+1

But I'm sure more gilt is gonna fall off the lilly of the "Beer Wars" set when they realize that craft brewers aren't as altruistic as compared to the "evil entity that is BMC" as they think they are. That they want to protect their trademarks and assets as much as any other business.

 

[kingmatt]

This is great advertising for Northern Brewer. Bell's is basically saying that they are scared by how close the beer is to theirs. I'm going to buy a kit now.

That's not really what they are saying at all...

 

[remilard]

Awwwww. Booooo to Bells. They are not "required" to defend their patent.

That you don't know what a patent is does not lend much weight to your opinion on intellectual property law.

 

[eelpout]

if it was a good clone maybe they wouldnt mind as much . I'm sure they dont want people thinking that a crappy clone or a clone that is way off in taste is the same as their product

 

[IrregularPulse]

I totally understand it on Bell's side. To keep a trademark, you have to defend it. Pretty simple. They're not suing NB, just officially asking them to change the name. I will definitely continue to support BOTH Bell's and NB.

+1 here. I think it's a totally legit claim. You can't just take someone else's name. Yes, 2 hearted is different than 3 hearted, but c'mon. Come up with your own names. If it's true that Bells didn't at least send a simple letter asking first, then that is messed up I suppose and the fact it took them 10 years. Oh well. No hate towards either company. Both are handling it respectfully IMO.

 

[Pilgarlic]

+1 But I'm sure more gilt is gonna fall off the lilly of the "Beer Wars" set when they realize that craft brewers aren't as altruistic as compared to the "evil entity that is BMC" as they think they are. That they want to protect their trademarks and assets as much as any other business.

This is the grossest sort of "straw man" argumentation. if you want to build a caricature of an argument to refute, enjoy that. But it's a form of debate that resembles masturbation.

 

[Cold Country Brewery]

So how does Austin Homebrew supply do it? They have a whole section of "Our Version of Commercial Brews." They don't even skirt around the issue, they have 4 types of Bell's kits you can buy.

Why can't all breweries be a cool a Surly (share the exact recipe with NB), and Rogue (list all their ingredients on the bottle). I like Bell's...a lot. But I think they are making mountains out of molehills here.

What's their main beef? Is it that the recipe is so close to the original they feel it will cut in their profits? Or is it that the name is so close to the original?

 

[Austinhomebrew]

I think we were the first homebrew store to get a cease and desist letter back in 2005. Our letter was from lawyers representing Pete's Wicked. We had to change 2 recipe kit names. This is more about lawyers not the breweries.

Forrest

 

[Revvy]

This is the grossest sort of "straw man" argumentation. if you want to build a caricature of an argument to refute, enjoy that. But it's a form of debate that resembles masturbation.

What????

There are actually people on here, who were pissed off to find out that representatives from craft breweries sit on the same trade organizations and lobbys as Bud Miller Coors, and wanted to boycott them because of that. And this is long before beer wars even came out. Some folks are so naive as to paint it as a black and white, "the craft brewers are all good and BMC is evil."

I'm not making it up. Heck look at all the folks that think Sam Adams or Dogfish Heads are "sellouts." Because they SA runs commercials, and DFH had a tv show made about them. Don't accuse me of anything for simply pointing out some facts about some folk's beliefs that can be clearly seen by searching through some of the threads on here.

 

[Misplaced_Canuck]

"This beer kit was inspired by Bell's Two Hearted ale".

 

[Revvy]

"This beer kit was inspired by Bell's Two Hearted ale".

You would think that is all it would take to make it ok....

 

[HVBrewtality]

I think we were the first homebrew store to get a cease and desist letter back in 2005. Our letter was from lawyers representing Pete's Wicked. We had to change 2 recipe kit names. This is more about lawyers not the breweries.

Forrest

Forrest, I think, has it right. It is more about the lawyers. This is the kind of thing that happens when a lawyer (probably new to the company) is trying to prove his worth so he starts something like this in motion.

 

[Cold Country Brewery]

This is more about lawyers not the breweries.

There is no way lawyers would act on Bell's behalf without Bell's telling them to. I just don't see what Bell's beef is, what are they gaining by asking NB to change the name...what are they losing by having NB keep it?

 

[DubbelDach]

Crap.... I just got a C&D letter from Bell's too....

Also from Family Guy.

 

[KellyK]

I have no problem with what Bell's is doing. NB is clearly referencing their product.

Where I think this gets a bit silly is what just happened with Oscar Blues and Gordon Biersch. Gordon Biersch forced Oscar Blues to stop producing an actual BEER called Gordon. Now, this particular beer in question, was named in honor of Gordon Knight, one of the co-founders of Twisted Pine who died fighting fires in Lyons, Co. "Gordon" - the beer, was an imperial red ale (now renamed G'Knight) a beverage, to my knowledge. that Gordon Biersch doesn't even produce. So, understanding the circumstances, I don't see how there would be confusion between the two products.

Same thing happend to Dry Dock and its Seven Seas IPA. Like I said, I understand that Bells needs to protect its actual product and I don't think NB should be able to garner profits off of a specific reference to another company's property. However, what harm did Oscar Blues do to Gordon Bierch by happening to have a beer named "Gordon" and what room for confusion was there with a brewery in Colorado making a beer named Seven Seas do to a Washington brewery named 7 Seas. Note that the owner of Dry Dock said he would have been "happy" to change the name if he would have just gotten a phone call instead of a nasty letter.

Links to both articles are posted below.

http://blogs.westword.com/cafesociety/2011/01/gordon_biersch_forces_oskar_bl.php#

http://blogs.westword.com/cafesociety/2011/03/dry_dock_brewing_changes_the_n.php#

 

[Rev2010]

Gordon Biersch forced Oscar Blues to stop producing an actual BEER called Gordon. Now, this particular beer in question, was named in honor of Gordon Knight, one of the co-founders of Twisted Pine who died fighting fires in Lyons, Co. "Gordon" - the beer, was an imperial red ale (now renamed G'Knight)

I'm pretty sure Oscar Blues probably did not "legally" have to change the name. The issue though is that to legally prove they have a right to name a beer Gorden would mean it would have to be proven in court and thereby cost a lot of money in legal fees. So, they probably could've taken it to court and won, simple reason is because it's a generic common name, nothing something entirely unique like Nike or Sony. But companies, especially smaller breweries, will often cave in and just change it to avoid the cost of fighting it.

Yes, it is ridiculously silly, I totally agree. When it comes to business & money people can act very bullish and scummy.


Rev.

 

[Scooby_Brew]

No biggy, just a standard practice, the fact they send the letter doesn't mean they will act on it.
Years ago Bell's Oberon was called "SunSole", but they were sued by Molson because the name was too similar... SunSole-Molson. Oh well.


BTW, here is Sam Calagione telling how he send a Cease And Desist to a Micro Brewery in Japan. The brewery is called "Catfish Head" and their flag brew is a 75 min IPA LOL
This video is 63 min. long: [ame]http://youtu.be/HPOewnwgO0Q[/ame]