Check this out: http://www.westsixth.com/no-more-magic-hat/?age-verified=0791d06fd8
Not really a fan of #9 anyway. Not that I can get either of these breweries’ beers here, but it’s still pretty crappy on their part.
I guess if I saw both logos on the draft handles at a bar I would get confused after 15 or so beers…they both have green in their logos :P. Good thing magic hat #9 handle is made out of metal. If anyone disagrees tell me but I almost feel magic hat is going through an identity crises. You truly only see their #9 anywhere now a days, in PA at bars, and they seem to be following bud-a-rita line of thinking with some of their beers. Not that there is a problem with vegetable beers but when your cucumber beer makes me wish I was just having cucumber infused water instead…there is an issue. Even their website is ridiculous. You go on it and “MY EYES!” This would be as ridicules as if Unibroue sued them for people getting confused between their Trois Pistoles and magic hats Pistil.
Trying to litigate 'em out of business? Not just a BMC tactic anymore! Far from the good vibes I have always associated with craft beer. I haven’t drank Magic Hat in awhile anyway (because it’s not great beer.)
/sarcasm/
My first thought was they must have a patent on “rounded edges”. Then I remembered that’s Apple. So it must be that both logos use the same green color and both are at a minimum “roundish” in shape.
/end sarcasm/
Sadly this is world we all live in. Corporate legal department or firm on retainer means very little additional cost for the big boys to file petitions. It wastes the courts time and eats away at the profitability of your smaller competitors. Why innovate when you can litigate?
Just sad.
Paul
This does sound like a frivolous law suit - which I think is a serious mattter and a terrible tactic. So I don’t mean to make light of it in any way.
That said: don’t we have any Jimi Hendrix fans around here? Spot on lyrics:
If the sun refused to shine,
I don’t mind, I don’t mind.
(Yeah)
If the mountains fell in the sea,
Let it be, it ain’t me.
Got my own world to live through
And I ain’t gonna copy you.
Now, if 6 turned up to be 9,
I don’t mind, I don’t mind.
If all the hippies cut off their hair,
I don’t care, I don’t care.
I’m no fan of Magic Hat beers but I can see some similarity between the labels. I mean, aside from the numbers being different. Similar color, similar font and similar star. Although craft drinkers would probably not confuse the two, people who dabble in craft/are new to craft may not be so distinguishing. I could easily see the same company putting out a #9 and #6 beer (as some do) with similar logos. If one just saw the similar logos on draft handles you can imagine somebody who didn’t know any better thinking the two were related beers. Maybe it is just the lawyer in me (but not an IP lawyer) looking for the Magic Hat angle but I could see a federal judge agreeing the logos are similar enough.
I know that is not the popular opinion among craft drinkers and most craft drinkers cry foul when brewers don’t play nice and let these things go, but craft brewing is turning into big business, even with lots of small businesses in play, and that means people are going to start protecting their business interests. If you don’t protect your appropriately then you might find yourself losing the right to protect and use it down the road, which would be silly. Breweries are going to have to start doing a better job of making sure their IP is not infringing on other brewers’ IP. Getting some logos on fivver and slapping it on your logo isn’t going to cut it going forward.
This thread is why I don’t drink craft beer, only nano beer so rare that no one has heard of it.
I prefer Pico breweries. They are more innovative than Nanos.
Brewery in Erlimayer flask.
I’m digging it!
Absolutely right. Especially since what I’ve been saying for years is particularly true these days: ‘craft’ breweries aren’t so much in competition with the BMCs of the world nearly as much as they are in competition with each other. It will get even more intense as new breweries continue to jump on the bandwagon, competing for shelf space, tap space, and customer loyalty (though in the new world of beer, customer loyalty is less prevalent as drinkers are always looking for the next new thing).
[begin rant] In our legal system, the primary way to redress legitimate grievance is to sue someone. Somehow, our culture has decided that nearly all lawsuits are “frivolous,” leaving real victims frequently demonized and without recourse. Case in point, that McDonald’s coffee lawsuit that nearly everyone thought was frivolous, even though the lady suffered 3rd degree burns, spent 8 days in the hospital, and required skin grafts. [/end rant]
To be fair, I don’t think people thought that lawsuit was frivolous. They just thought that lady was an idiot.
Unfortunately Magic Hat has a history of this kind of thing:
They should take a lesson from Russian River and Avery - “Collaboration not Litigation”, but that’s probably never going to happen.
If it were me I would have all my friends stir up controversy (publicity) and when the time was right I would publicly put an end to the controversy in a very graceful way. Behind the scene I would be busting butt to make sure my product was superior.
I would not sue. Especially if it involved a jury. In today’s economy and political strife it would be easy to come off as a moron to twelve hard working beer drinkers who would rather not be in court listening to a whiner.
But the resulting warning on coffee cups is certainly frivolous. It protects nothing but liability.
Wasn’t there another lawsuit against McDonalds by some kid who ate there everyday and then sued them because he got fat? Or was that I recurring dream I have ;D
The Iowa grade school Mock Trial case 5 or 6 years ago was a variation on the McD’s coffee case. It was a great case to see done in moot court. Every kid on every team thought the whole idea was ridiculous but played on through anyway.
I always wondered about person who orders hot coffee, then puts the Styrofoam cup between her knees, starts driving and then blames the store for not warning her it was hot after burning herself when she spilled it. Falls in the “can’t fix stupid” bucket for me.
Kind of like a small brewery publicly inciting the escalation of a legal disagreement on the web and changing the dispute from a trademark issue to defamation. Not a very smart move.
It seems like the question of infringement would have been much easier to solve by changing the can design and dragging your feet, while still appearing to be negotiating, meanwhile using up your current inventory. Then quietly agreeing to not use the old design anymore. Magic Hat may or may not be acting in good faith but they are at least playing by the rules. It’s like Fight Club, “The first rule of fight club is you don’t talk about fight club”.
I’ve never had either beer and, as far as I know, neither are distributed in Iowa so I likely never will. I have no dog in this fight. I’m just watching a small business cut its own throat.
Paul
The crazy part is that they didn’t even have to go that far. Magic Hat offered to let them keep using the logo as long as they removed the star and included the words “West Sixth”. They would also have been able sell off the existing inventory.