A lawsuit filed May 16 in U.S. District Court by Magic Hat Brewing charged that West Sixth Brewing Company began selling beer, ale and brewpub services in 2012 using color, trademarks and designs “that closely resemble and are confusingly similar” to the designs used by Magic Hat for several years.
Magic Hat asks for “West Sixth to account for and to pay over to Magic Hat all profits realized by West Sixth” for what the lawsuit claims is “irreparable harm” brought upon the company for the “confusingly and substantially similar” logos.
Yesterday twits were twittering like crazy about how the mean big beer company was going after a little guy. After all Magic Hat is no longer a small independent brewery. Instead it is part of a multinational beer conglamorate (Cerveceria Costa Rica SA) which bought Magic Hat and a few other American breweries (Genessee, Pyramid, Dundee, and MacTarnahan’s) in 2012.
As far as the legal merits of the case, well, I’m not a lawyer. The closest I’ve come to studying law is reading a John Grisham novel. But in my ‘common man’ mentality, I’m thinking that while the two labels are somewhat similar, the “West Sixth Brewery” text is clearly visible. If someone buys the West Sixth beer thinking that it is the Magic Hat, then they obvious didn’t pass second grade and shouldn’t be allowed to buy beer anyway. It really just smells of greedy lawyers.
Here are the two beer labels. Do they look similar to you?
In a somewhat related story, Anheuser-Busch InBev is suing the Frozen Springs Sparkling Water Company claiming that their bottled water tastes exactly like Bud Light.
Ok, I admit that last comment about the A-B lawsuit is a joke. I don’t want A-B Inbev lawyers coming after me claiming I was spreading misinformation.
However the part about tasting like water is completely true……