I hope Moonlight Brewing loses and I hope it costs them lots of money in the process.
Unfortunately it’s going to cost Michael a lot of money to defend this. He is selling Utopias on his website at a discount to raise funds just for the retainer.
I’ve been following this pretty closely since they only 4 miles from my house.
I hope Moonlight Meadery defends this trademark without too much financial ruin.
FIGHT-4-MOONLIGHT
We recently got a cease and desist notice from a winery in New Jersey for one of our flag ship beers “Lost Highway”. In spite of Hank William’s legacy in Alabama, we chose not to fight this and change the name. It sucked to change the name but under legal advice we did. There really isn’t precedence in disputes between wineries and breweries. Perhaps this will change things one way or another.
Trust me, I didn’t need another reason to hate New jersey. 
I think what happened is Moonlight Brewing filed for their name 22 years after starting and came across opposition from a BBQ restaurant and figured they better check the database to see who else might cause them issues in the future and when they found Moonlight Meadery they drew a line in the sand. Perhaps they reached out to Michael in some form before filing, but I doubt it. While I can see the similarities with Moonlight, to me the rest of the name makes them unique. If I were Michael I would ask Brewing to withdraw their petition and agree to not distribute Moonlight Meadery BEER in California. The chances of him adding beer and taking is nationwide are pretty slim. The chances of Moonlight Brewing ever creeping outside of CA are pretty slim.
At any rate, it is a BS move on the part of Moonlight Brewing and Candace Moon. Had Moonlight Brewing and Candace checked before their initial application in 2014 they would have easily found Moonlight Meadery. Instead they filed this petition which Michael will now have to defend into at least 2017.
The markets are too similar. I’ve met Brian Hunt a few times and he seems like a stand up guy maybe this can be worked out without too much issue.
Damn New Jersey wines. Up yours Bon Jovi
It wouldn’t be bad if they had opposed the mark in 2011 or even when they filed for their own in 2014, but to come up two years later and oppose it stinks. Perhaps Brian is an awesome guy, but if I were him I would have to question the attorney and why she didn’t figure this out back in 2014. Isn’t that part of what he was paying her to file in the first place?
I agree. Moonlight mead wasn’t as readily available in CA back then, maybe that is part of his issue. One could argue that Michael could have looked harder back in the early days as well.
Who knows the full story? All we know is two paragraphs from some random Wordpress blog. I can’t find anything else regarding this, though I haven’t tried to lookup the case. This could be a case of Brian trying to CYA himself incase Michael tries to sue him later.
How do you know what the chances of Moonlight Beers distributing out of CA are? His beers are great.
Meanwhile I’m going to start my Anheiser Busch Meadery to see how long it takes to have thousands of dollars torn from my backside.
I am not an IP attorney but just from looking at the filings I think Candace Moon has put her client in an untenable position by arguing market confusion with Moonlight Meadery while simultaneously arguing that the term “moonlight” is so diluted in the market that the BBQ restaurant (which uses Moonlite) cannot reasonably claim market confusion. The BBQ restaurant has a registration for various Moonlite marks that include selling beer and wine which is probably where the issue arose with the brewery in California.
The risk to the meadery is that after defending against the brewery the BBQ restaurant may follow suit with attempting to cancel the meadery’s registration as well. I’m not sure how likely this is. The BBQ place probably doesn’t sell mead and has no interest in fighting over a product that has no real overlap with its business.
Stevie - click the links in the blog to get to the USPTO filings. You can then decide for yourself what is going on.
As far as the blog, the guy does a pretty good job of checking and linking documents. If all someone is doing is reading two paragraphs they probably should not read his blog.
That’s just the filing. No evidence or statements from either party. I’m not saying either is right or wrong, just coming at it from the other side.
And the last time I had Moonlight’s beers they were not great, in fact the opposite. Now that has been several years ago, at least 5. The first time I had them they were very well done, but that was an exceedingly long time ago, probably 2001. I checked BeerAdvocate and their tick reviews would say his beers are good to very good.
The facts in this case are Meadery got their mark in 2011 and started in 2010.
Brewing applied for a mark in 2014 and started in 1992.
Brewing petitioned to cancel Meadery in 2016. The Brewing mark application was challenged by Moonlite BBQ in 2015.
I suspect neither is going to say much in public. I don’t see how any publicity by Brian would be in his favor with anyone but fans since he did not file the opposition with or soon after the application. Michael did post some items for sale in an attempt to raise funds for the defense, but other than that has taken the high road in social media. That is where I first took notice.
I agree he’s late to the party in trying to cancel it. Hopefully they can coexist.
No evidence but there are a number of filed documents by the BBQ joint and the brewery making allegations and raising defenses around these issues.
Moonlight Brewing’s beers have been great to well, not so good for me. The Reality Czech was not very good the first time I had it, second it was sublime. At the 2009 NHC in Oakland many friends commented that the beers were buttery.
2009 was exactly when I found them all pretty awful. We went to a particular restaurant in Santa Rosa simply because they had Moonlight Brewing beers. The restaurant was just ok and with less than stellar beers we left as soon as we finished eating. BeerAdvocate would suggest the beers are now back on track.
FYI, there is definitely a beer named “Lost Highway” (a black IPA) by Mother Road in AZ. There appears to also be a Lost Highway Brewing Company in CO. You went the way that Clown Shoes did with Vampire Slayer (funny enough also due to a winery suing them). On the other hand, changing the entire name of a brewery or meadery isn’t quite as simple, especially considering that Michael’s meadery is definitely more well known in the US.
To me this is all just more evidence that our patent and trademark laws are not really helping businesses succeed. This case is significantly nuanced, but look at some of the stuff between Samsung, Apple and Google over the patent for clicking a phone number and having it automatically dial that number. Is that convenient – yes. Should every other company have to pay the company that filed the patent first (or bought that company) – probably not.
We’re all watching the consolidation in the beer industry, but so far it’s been mostly about financially successful brewers buying breweries that make good beer. Just wait until they’re buying breweries that make bad beer only for the name. Then we’ll know we’ve really jumped the shark.
Flavor? That has been up and down too when we were there. Last time was pretty good.