(Healdsburg, CA) – A legal battle spanning two years between Central City Brewing and Bear Republic has come to a conclusion with Bear Republic the victor.

Label approval came in this week for two Central City beers, Red Betty IPA and Red Betty Pale Ale, signaling the end to lots of legal wrangling between the two companies.

It began in January of 2010. The Boston IP blog reported that Bear Republic had filed a lawsuit for alleged trademark infringement of its two brands, Racer 5 IPA and Red Rocket Ale. Central City started marketing “Red Racer” in the U.S. just a few months before. The branding is the brewery’s identity (see Facebook and Twitter pages) similar to how “Fat Tire” is seen as New Belgium’s identity by some.

But no more, at least in the U.S.. “Red Betty” replaces “Red Racer” from this point forward on beers imported to the States.

The latest battle started this past June when Central City filed a petition to cancel Bear Republic’s Red Rocket registered marks. Central City allegedly discovered that Bear Republic had an agreement with Bristol Brewing in Colorado allowing it to use names that may infringe on Bear Republic’s marks. The company claimed that Bear Republic deceptively withheld this information from the USPTO.

Bear Republic responded calling Central City’s attempt to “resurrect its claim for cancellation of the Red Rocket registrations” “cynical and vexatious.” Bear Republic additionally accused Central City of recreating history, gamesmanship and misrepresentations. They even called the attempt “feeble” somewhere, too. And then there is this…

“Petitioner [Central City] is like a person who intentionally pollutes a park or playground with useless paper and then argues that the federal government should clean it up in order that local park resources be conserved. Petitioner should not be allowed to abuse the judicial process by such gamesmanship.”

The two companies quietly settled over a dispute around the “Red Racer” branding this past fall.

Fresh off of the Central City win, Bear Republic has filed for an extension to oppose four separate registrations from four companies in the past three months. The potential offenders? Germany’s Race Cat Energy Drink, Red Rocket Blaster Sports Drink and Rags’ Red Rocket Sauce.

More notable than those companies is fellow California craft brewery, the SoCal Beer Company. The beer is called Red Carpet Ale with label artwork that reflects SoCal’s Hollywood roots. We may not see anything come out of it as no opposition has actually been filed yet.

At the time of the initial rumblings in February 2010, Central City Brewmaster, Gary Lohin, said, “We want to spend our money on new tanks, and kegs, and our employees, not give it to lawyers. I see this as a lose – lose lawsuit, and I certainly wouldn’t like to see a boycott against Bear Republic.”

One has to wonder whether Lohin feels the same way today.

UPDATE: Evan Benn of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch raises an interesting point about whether this would create a conflict with Nebraska Black Betty. Oddly enough, Nebraska Brewing never filed a trademark application for it though someone else did. Washington-based Emerald City Brewing filed an application to register the mark in November. It will be interesting to see if there is anymore legal scuttlebutt over Red Betty or Black Betty in the future.