West Sixth start up brewery being sued by Magic Hat parent company over logo

[passedpawn]

Where on god's green earth is Costa Rico?

Fairly south, somewhere, possibly.

Why do I laugh heartily at this kind of silly stuff. But I did! I must be drinking again.

 

[tyzippers]

Why do I laugh heartily at this kind of silly stuff. But I did! I must be drinking again.

It's the spice of life. A really funny smelling spice.

 

[Cincy17]

They want to claim that West Sixth stole their logo, but the logo for their cucumber hibiscus looks an awful lot like a certain soft drink logo.

Quite a few bars in Lexington and even up here in Cincinnati have already pulled Magic Hat from their offerings.

 

[zmanzorro]

Response from West Sixth:

http://www.westsixth.com/response-to-magic-hat/?age-verified=055885e995

Seems fair to me.

 

[mtnagel]

Heck, we already distribute a lot more beer than you do in Kentucky.

Oh, burn

 

[TheJasonT]

Seems West Sixth has a solid point. I like their last line - lets bury the hatchet and down a beer together.

 

[terrapinj]

I don't know anything about either one of these breweries but there are some similarities in the two logos. What pisses me off is, out here there is a general respect and fellowship among the micros. Micros aren't competing wih other Micros as much as they could be competing with the big three. If I was thier father, id slap them both on the wrist and tell them to get along and focus on the big picture. What a waste of time and money.
Whether I think its similar or not, Il sign that petition. That's total bull****.

Craft Brewers compete with eachother far more than they do with BMC

craft beer is gaining market share but it still only accounts for 6% or so of total beer sales - there are 2400+ craft breweries competing for that small share

there are enough similarities to the two logos that justify Magic Hat wanting to protect their logo. how they are going about it, what the discussions have been and the rest of the "details" are just he said she said for now.

IMO west sixth are the ones handling it poorly by trying to bring the public into this legal matter

putting the words around a logo doesn't simply remove any trademark infringement

 

[hillybilly]

Craft Brewers compete with eachother far more than they do with BMC

craft beer is gaining market share but it still only accounts for 6% or so of total beer sales - there are 2400+ craft breweries competing for that small share

there are enough similarities to the two logos that justify Magic Hat wanting to protect their logo. how they are going about it, what the discussions have been and the rest of the "details" are just he said she said for now.

IMO west sixth are the ones handling it poorly by trying to bring the public into this legal matter

putting the words around a logo doesn't simply remove any trademark infringement

what trademark infringement a 6 and 9 are totally different one is a circle with a six and compass the other has a 9 compass and some crazy art work I guess you could say a 3 and 8 look similar maybe childers motor sports should sue the 8 and 88 teams

 

[BinghamtonEd]

Breaking News!!! Additional parties have been added to the complaint waged by Magic Hat!!!

"Watch yourself, 5-hour energy drinks." - Magic Hat Brewery Spokesperson

 

[terrapinj]

what trademark infringement a 6 and 9 are totally different one is a circle with a six and compass the other has a 9 compass and some crazy art work I guess you could say a 3 and 8 look similar maybe childers motor sports should sue the 8 and 88 teams

they use similar font for the numbers, a circular design and both use a star/Astrix, with the west sixth compass being located near the same position as the # sign for #9

i'm not saying it is in fact an infringement but they certainly have similarities

magic hat has every right and is required to protect their trademark - I just don't feel it's necessary to post public (snarky) responses back and forth

 

[nutty_gnome]

The snarky responses keep it all interesting. Otherwise it is all boring legal junk that I wouldn't care about.

 

[ktblunden]

magic hat has every right and is required to protect their trademark - I just don't feel it's necessary to post public (snarky) responses back and forth

From the letters Magic Hat posted, 6th demonstrated a willingness to work together and change their logo. Magic Hat made the decision to sever communication and file the lawsuit. I don't think a public response to that is out of line.

 

[terrapinj]

From the letters Magic Hat posted, 6th demonstrated a willingness to work together and change their logo. Magic Hat made the decision to sever communication and file the lawsuit. I don't think a public response to that is out of line.

and according to Magic Hat

After months of working with them, they abruptly changed their minds and refused to take the simplest steps to avoid confusion and a lawsuit

as I said, it's mostly he said she said at this point

 

[Clonefan94]

There are certain things that shouldn't be allowed to be copywrited at all. #9 or any # plus actual number combination should be out of bounds. That should be considered public domain no matter what. If not, I need to hurry up and TM #1, so I can start suing the foam finger people.

 

[tagz]

I think they are pretty similar. Same type set on 6 and 9, surrounded by circle, and accented by a compass design. I also think West Sixth is blowing it up for publicity. I'm sure they could have settled it pretty easily. Magic Hat makes pretty crappy beer, but I would side with them on this one. I'm not convinced that West Sixth didn't see the similarity when they were designing it in the first place.

 

[ktblunden]

and according to Magic Hat



as I said, it's mostly he said she said at this point

I get what you're saying, but the "evidence" they posted doesn't seem to indicate 6th changing their mind.

 

[CBMbrewer]

I have only read one article from each point of view so I won't be signing any petitions until it is very clear to me who is in the wrong.
It seems, however, that Magic Hat was initially getting upset about something that shouldn't affect their sales and image at all. But it is also pretty obvious that West Sixth has launched a full scale smear campaign against Magic Hat.
Neither of these are particularly mature or professional things to do.

 

[TyTanium]

Where's that popcorn gif when you need it

 

[bob1852]

Where's that popcorn gif when you need it

It's trademarked by Magic Hat.

 

[Nightshade]

The way I see it is MH made a stink over a minor similarity.

West Sixth initially was talking with them about settling...then one of the marketing guys saw an opportunity to capitalize on the free publicity and things changed in a hurry.

I am not siding with either as I think both tactics are pretty slimey.

 

[Retire2016]

Sounds like they just don't agree and they are leveraging the public's tendency to be all anti-corporate about stuff like this and support the underdog (or underbeer?). It's also free advertising for the 'underbeer' brewery, so I'm reserving judgement, and not drinking either beer. One reason is because I can't get the one beer and the other reason is because I just don't like MH beers. They can both go and waste their money in court. I'll go and drink.

EDIT: I licked the labels, but they both tasted the same!!! I'm suing!

 

[Varmintman]

And this thread is why I refuse to drink craft beer and stick with the good BMC.

 

[invivoSaccharomyces]

IANAL, but... I do think that trademark infringement is at least a somewhat interesting topic. In this case, as far as I can reasonably tell, MH has absolutely no standing if any lawsuit were to be filed.

There's a legal precedent that is standard in English law, but has been cited in trademark disagreements in both Canada and the US, and that is the moron in a hurry argument. The idea behind it is that a brand's trademark is considered to be infringed if someone who isn't paying much attention (and who may be a person of... underwhelming mental prowess) can mistakenly pick one item up from the store, when actually intending to pick the other item up.

Obviously, this argument pops up a lot for cheap "store-brand" knock-off products, like the cola drinks you see at the supermarket. Those products are intentionally made to substitute for actual Coke or Pepsi, and are marketed as such.

In the case of West Sixth beer, no one - not even a moron in a hurry - would mistake one for the other. Because of that, I don't believe it should matter if both logos happen to contain numbers located within some sort of circular border, and both just happen to have eight-pointed-star figures somewhere within said border. If you place the two logos next to one another and analyze them, you could point out similarities all day long, but that doesn't mean that either company has grounds for a trademark infringement case.

This case has all the hallmarks of corporate bullying. MH knows that West 6th can't afford a lawsuit, and they're trying to buy them out of existence with their expensive New York legal team. I can't blame West 6th for publicizing this - I would too, if I were them. Selling extra beer is the only way they could afford to fight anything in court, and if they're going down, they might as well take the bully down with them. I see no reason that West 6th should give in to any of the demands of MH, and they were generous to make the changes that they did.

But again, IANAL.

 

[tyzippers]

And this thread is why I refuse to drink craft beer and stick with the good BMC.

I'm trying to understand the logic of this statement, but since I live on earth, I've got nothing.

 

[drainbamage]

Craft Brewers compete with eachother far more than they do with BMC

Craft brewers also collaborate with each other quite a bit. BMC usually buys out or pursues litigation against what they see as possible threats.

 

[passedpawn]

Anyone ever wonder if two very wily creative marketing people in two brewing companies got together and created the controversy just for publicity?

 

[hillybilly]

Craft brewers also collaborate with each other quite a bit. BMC usually buys out or pursues litigation against what they see as possible threats.

as a matter of fact West Sixth Street did collaborate with Country Boy brewing and they created a beer that both sold during Lexington Craft Beer week

 

[bovineblitz]

Looks like I won't be drinking any more magic hat, not that it was great anyways

Why would you make a judgement without learning the real story first?

http://new.pitchengine.com/pitches/0ab90552-225c-4a77-bf2e-79ecdcd09c15

 

[brewmcq]

Why would you make a judgement without learning the real story first?

http://new.pitchengine.com/pitches/0ab90552-225c-4a77-bf2e-79ecdcd09c15

We've already seen that.

 

[tyzippers]

Why would you make a judgement without learning the real story first?

http://new.pitchengine.com/pitches/0ab90552-225c-4a77-bf2e-79ecdcd09c15

I don't think any of us know the real story. No matter what is posted on the Internet. I still maintain that Magic Hat's complaint is silly and pedantic. Instead of trying to make good publicity over this, they resorted to complaining about a vaguely similar looking logo. Plus, I still don't like MH stuff.