The Bar Towel

[GregClow]

Well, this is pretty f'n ridiculous...

Foreign owned Labatt sues Canadian owned and Ontario based craft brewer Brick Brewing, maker of Red Baron Beer



WATERLOO, ON, May 19 /CNW/ - Brick Brewing Co. Limited ("Brick" or the
"Corporation") (TSX: BRB) announced today that it has received a Statement of
Claim commenced by Labatt Brewing Company Limited ("Labatt") in Canada's
Federal Court claiming, among other things, infringement of Labatt's Brava
beer trademarks, depreciation of the goodwill associated with the Brava marks
and that beer consumers are confused between Brick's Red Baron beer and
Labatt's Brava beer. Labatt is seeking an interim, interlocutory and permanent
injunction against Brick as well as damages or an accounting of profits from
Brick's sales of Red Baron since adopting its new packaging. When Labatt
bought Lakeport in 2007 they acquired the Brava brand.

Brick recently received funding from the Government of Ontario to market
their brands and used a considerable amount to re-launch the Red Baron brand
in bold new packaging with 4.8% alcohol by volume. Brick also invested in
billboard and print advertising along with a new radio campaign. Labatt is
claiming that the colour scheme and bottles are too similar to Brava and this
could result in irreparable harm to the Brava brand. Red Baron currently
represents less than 0.5% of all sales through The Beer Store ("TBS").

George Croft, Brick's President & CEO said "Red Baron is a great tasting
premium blonde lager beer at the lowest legal price established by the
Government of Ontario, of $24.95 plus deposit for 24 bottles. Brick paid a
considerable amount to participate in The Beer Store lobby display program and
has seen positive results." Labatt has a significant ownership interest in
TBS, and ironically also claims that the inability of TBS staff to properly
sort bottles has resulted in Red Baron bottles being returned to Labatt.
"Brick pays TBS an additional fee to sort the Red Baron clear bottles, so we
find this issue to be very frustrating", added Mr. Croft.

"Their claim is without merit, we do not believe consumers are being
confused and we tried to talk through the situation with Labatt and avoid an
adversarial relationship", said Mr. Croft. "Brick is disappointed that despite
our best intentions, Labatt has launched this lawsuit. Notwithstanding the
differences in packaging, based on The Beer Store retail layout and policies,
consumers normally have to ask for Red Baron by name, which makes confusion
over packaging seem unlikely. The brands and packaging are different and we
believe that consumers choose Red Baron because it is a premium blonde lager
at the lowest legal price and brewed by a Canadian owned and operated
company."

[SteelbackGuy]

Man, that is silly. Of all things to get worked up over. Maybe I'll sue Labatt for false advertising, saying that Blue is a pilsener.
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Leafs fans are a special type of sports fan. And by special, I mean pretty gay!

[Bobsy]

What are Labatt saying about the intelligence of their customers if they think there would be confusion between these two labels?
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Facebook: Toronto Beer Week
Twitter: @TorontoBeerWeek

[Belgian]

This is what I think.... Big brewers always harass smaller ones, and there are lots of big corporate lawyers eager to justify their pay cheque.

Sometimes the plaintiff is only secretly hoping to cause ongoing trouble, hindrance and losses for the accused - this is malicious suit, but the accused need to prove malice. Look and AB's ongoing international suits with the Czech brewery Budweiser Budvar. The plaintiff's expensive teams of lawyers are there to make intentional harassment look like a genuine grievance, and protect the plaintiff from counter-suit by the smaller. lss powerful accused. It's essentially an aggressive act of war to limit the sales of the competitor.

90% of lawsuits are just bullshit though, and they often go nowhere.
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In Beerum Veritas " ...John Malkovich ... mere mortal, or scarf-healing secret super power?"

[Bytowner]

Love it. TBS is constantly talking about how they don't go out of their way to screw small brewers but when Brick actually manages to scrap together the funds to get their beer displayed InBev sues them. Such a joke.

[Cass]

Some good FreeOurBeer fodder here. PS some new articles up if anyone's interested.

[Bytowner]

I got a good laugh out of your letterhead post Cass.

[Derek]

First the beer store sues them over the stubby, and now they're saying the bottles are too similar?

Is Laker really hurting them enough to resort to this? (ie. hurting the Brick any way they can).

Brewers retail was initially a decent idea. The current, foreign-owned, TBS really needs to go. I think I'd actually prefer a complete government monopoly over this nonsense.

[beer-fire]

The sad thing about this is the Brava label was made to resemble MGD when it was relaunched, the Red Baron and Brava labels are different! Not to mention the Beer inside and the Companies who make them! The profits from Red Baron sales Stay in Ontario.

My 2 cents

Cheers!

[Jon Walker]

I've long been confused by these two "products". Perhaps I should file suit?


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I don't always piss in a bottle but when I do...I prefer to call it Dos Equis.

[beer-fire]

LMAO! very fuuny!

[The_Jester]

Jon - That's effin' brilliant!

I hope that Brick kicks their Belgian asses.
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"The time for delay is over, we need to address the threat of climate change activism immediately if we hope to protect the future prosperity of our children’s employers." Scott Vrooman

[boney]

Both have corn adjuncts in them. It's clear that Brava stole the idea (from the other lovely item in Jon's picture).

[Belgian]

[Andicus]

Labatt has a point... I mean both brands do start with B.

Idiots.