Bells loses trademark case.

[JB_Brewing2]

Small NC brewer came out on top of this one:

https://www.freep.com/story/money/b...-brewery-trademark-north-carolina/1029284001/

I like Bells but the quality doesn't seem to be the same since he lost the Solsun (now known as Oberon) case (1996?) and dropped 22's. It seemed this current case was a stretch.

 

[canehdianman]

haha, what a stupid claim. Glad they lost.

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

I would agree. When I first heard about the case I thought it was a stretch.

I'm not one of those who reflexively gets angry when I hear about a brewery suing another over a trademark dispute, or even a big brewer suing a little guy over a trademark dispute. Trademarks are valuable assets and are critical to most business's branding. Trademark disputes arise when marks are legitimately similar enough that they could potentially cause confusion in the marketplace. There are many, MANY valid trademark infringements that are worth being complained about.

This one didn't seem to rise to the level of plausibility, though.