Excerpt from court document comparing logos
(Boston, MA) – The first update on the Bear Republic – Central City Brewing lawsuit in four months . . .
Back in February, news broke that Bear Republic would be taking Central City Brewing to court over alleged trademark infringement on its Racer 5 and Red Rocket brands.
The lawsuit is still in its early stages though we’ve got our first taste of what is to come. Bear Republic filed for a preliminary injunction in May. What does that mean? The brewery wanted Central City to cease all activities pertaining to the “infringing” Red Racer brand while the lawsuit was in process. The court ruled against Bear Republic’s request for injunction.
The request, in its own right, shows that Bear Republic means business. Per Wikipedia, to be granted the injunction, Bear Republic is arguing all four of the following:
1) Substantial likelihood of success on the merits of the case,
2) BR faces substantial threat of irreparable damage or injury if the injunction is not granted,
3) It is more harmful to BR if not granted injunction than it is to Central City if granted injunction
4) Grant of injunction serves the public interest
According to the legal document filed by the court, Bear Republic’s argument for confusion between the two brands was not particularly compelling, knocking out criteria #1.
In addition, Bear Republic failed to assert that instances of confusion cited so far caused any harm such as loss of sales. The court has found that the three moments of confusion cited by BR aren’t enough to extrapolate confusion to the general population either and that BR failed to show any financial harm as a result of these instances. Also of note, Bear Republic sales were up 16% last year despite Central City Red Racer being available for all of 2009. The end result is that BR hasn’t made a compelling case for criteria #2 or #3 either.
As for criteria #4, the court says “The public interest is best served by fair competition in the marketplace. Since Bear Republic has not shown a likelihood of succeeding on the merits in establishing its infringement claims, to enjoin Central City from selling RED RACER in the United States would not serve the public interest.”
Looks like a clean sweep for Central City. Now the question is whether Bear Republic will swallow its pride and give up or push forward in its battle against the small Canadian brewery.
[Ed. note: Hat tip to Beer in BC for the link.]
it’s a pointless petty injunction that serves nobody any good, though it serves to make Bear Republic look like dunces. i’m all for fair competition and action when there is a real infringement but in this case…absolutely not. i also take offense as an intelligent independently minded individual that Bear Republic is basically assertaining that i am not smart enough to tell/figure out the difference between the two breweries and their separate brands. i realize the dumbing down of america continues in spades, but i was really hoping the craft beer community was better than that. maybe i was wrong…
Didn’t this naming thing happen between Avery and Russian River. They just did a collaboration not Litgation ale and kept doing there thing. Bear Republic needs to chill and move on.
Red racer IPA is great. They made good promotion at the Winter Games, and you have to be really drunk to get the two confused. Give it up, Bear, you are losing more on image and law fees!
I used to call my little red wagon the “Red Racer” when I was 5 years old. Will Bear Republic file an injunction against me?
I can see their point – especially with all the money companies are spending on advertising. When you have a successful brand you want to protect it as much as possible. Honestly most people aren’t going to hear about the lawsuit, so I’m not sure how much their image will take a hit.. Legal fees are another story.
Personally, I hope that Bear Republic decides to go through and nails ’em. You just don’t do stuff like this…
Krystin and the rest need a marketing class. It’s not an issue of stupid people, or something inane like that. The issue is taking a near identical font, combining the two names, and then marketing a beer that terrestrial drinkers might try it, hate it, and hold it against a company that has nothing to do with the beer they’re drinking. It’s a simple matter that Bear is trying to protect what is theirs, and their image, before they suffer irreparable damage.
So long as they wouldn’t get buried in legal fees, I’d say… Go get ’em Bear.