Odell’s big double IPA is at the center of another trademark brouhaha (photo from Odell).
Stop us if you think you have heard this one before … a couple of craft breweries get entangled in a trademark dispute and one sends out a news release.
This latest episode involves Fort Collins-based Odell Brewing (), its Myrcenary double IPA, and a small brewery and distillery that opened its doors last year in Chicago under the name Mercenary Brewery and Distillery.
The release sent out Thursday by the fledgling Chicago business said it was changing its name to Maplewood Brewery and Distillery after receiving a cease-and-desist letter from Odell, which holds a trademark for “Myrcenary.”
That is factual enough, Odell Brewing co-owner Wynne Odell said Thursday by phone from Portland, where she is attending the annual Craft Brewers Conference. It just left out an important detail, she said — Odell didn’t go looking for a fight, but only learned about the issue after the Illinois business sought to trademark its name and was denied by regulators because of Odell’s use of the “Myrcenary” term.
“From their perspective, I can understand,” Wynne Odell said. “It’s a heck of a lot of work to make that change. But they should have, could have started to think about it when they realized the name was being already used. So they created some of their own pain by letting it go on for a year. But anyway, there is no animosity between the two breweries. .. Truly, we had a great conversation. We are not out to squash the little guy. It’s like, ‘You made a mistake and you should have addressed it earlier.'”
As the craft brewing industry has grown and original names have become scarcer, trademark disputes constantly rage over brewery names, beer names and more — some involving big beer and others pitting craft breweries against each other. Some disagreements are settled quietly and out of public view, and others blow up. The Strange vs. Strange fiasco, , is the most prominent local example of the latter.
Maplewood founders Ari Megalis and Adam Cieslak started off as homebrewers in the summer of 2007, and in January 2014 signed a lease on a 7,000 square-foot warehouse in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood, with future plans for a taproom, the release says. Last October, they began to distribute a pale ale and a milk stout. With a federal craft distiller’s license newly in hand, distilling and aging whiskies and gins are upcoming. (We have attempted to contact Megalis and Cieslak and have yet to hear back).
This is how Maplewood-formerly-Mercenary described what happened with the trademark issue …
A few months ago, we received a Cease and Desist letter from the attorneys for Odell Brewing Company. This letter alleged that our brewery and distillery name infringed Odell’s trademarks related to their Myrcenary Double IPA beer. Odell Brewing Company holds the trademark to the word “Myrcenary,” which was registered in May 2011. Upon receiving the Cease and Desist, we attempted to work with Odell to reach a resolution that would allow Mercenary Brewery & Distillery to amicably co-exist with Odell Brewing Company’s Myrcenary Double IPA.
We offered Odell multiple potential solutions and explained that we have been using the name Mercenary (albeit informally) since we began homebrewing in 2007. However, as is their legal right, Odell did not allow us to continue to use any form of the word “Mercenary.” Odell was kind enough to allow us to run through our current label stock prior to the name change, which we appreciate.
Records with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office show Mercenary Brewery and Distillery filed a trademark application in December 2013. The office rejected the claim in March, saying confusion with Odell’s nationally distributed beer was possible because the names sound the same. The double IPA’s name is a play on “myrcene,” a component of essential oils in the hop flower.
The trademark office then rejected a Mercenary Brewery and Distillery appeal, noting that “myrcene” is too obscure for most drinkers to recognize as differentiating the two products, concluding: “The fact remains that there is no correct way to pronounce a trademark and the applicant’s and the registrant’s marks clearly sound and look very similar.”
Wynne Odell said the Mercenary folks thought that the change in the second letter of the word (the ‘e’ instead of a ‘y’) was enough to prevent consumer confusion. Odell Brewing does not agree, she said. In any case, Wynne Odell said Odell Brewing did not learn about the claim until after Mercenary Brewery and Distillery’s appeal was denied.
“It isn’t like we are constantly trolling to make sure our trademarks are being upheld,” she said.
Because the Chicago business could have made another filing with the trademark office to keep the issue alive, Odell sent out the cease-and-desist letter, she said. That began discussions between the two businesses. Rather than fight on, the Chicago brewers and distillers opted for the name change.
To mark the transition, Maplewood is is planning a beer release and .
The incident bears a resemblance to .
Odell said she has sympathy for the mercenaries of Chicagoland, being a small operation that had invested in a name they had been using informally for years.
But she was disappointed in the tone of how the brewers described how everything — well, not everything — came down.
