Anheuser-Busch InBev Picks Fight With UK Craft Brewery

(Courtesy Forest Road Brewing / AB InBev)

Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world’s largest brewery, has decided to pick a fight with London-based Forest Road Brewing Company over the name of its newest beer, Jupiter Double IPA, which the Leuven, Belgium-headquartered global brewer claims is too close to their award-winning Jupiler Pale Lager.

So it’s Jupiter vs Jupiler, and David vs Goliath..

Forest Road Brewing was celebrating the installation of its new brewhouse, which they purchased from the famed Russian River in California and sailed to London via the Panama Canal, with the new 8.7% ABV West Coast-Style IPA according to Beer Today. The brewery had filed to trademark Jupiter when they received a “cease and desist” letter from  AB InBev lawyers.

Claiming that Jupiter was too similar to Jupiler which is named  after the Jupille-sur-Meuse neighborhood of Liège, Belgium where it was first brewed, the AB InBev lawyers demanded that the  Forest Road Brewing Company   “withdraw their trademark application” and “never use or apply to register the mark Jupiter or any other mark including the word Jupiter. “

This from AB InBev’s cease and desist letter…

“Jupiler has no meaning, and Jupiter is the name of a planet. Therefore, there is no conceptual comparison to be made. As a result, it is likely to give the impression that the mark Jupiter is part of or connected with [their] client’s Jupiler trademarks, which is likely to take an unfair advantage of its reputation and fame.”

Although not widely distributed in US is Jupiler is HUGE in Belgium where it has long been voted the most popular beer in that country.  Jupiler makes up a more than 40% share of the beer produced in Belgium annually, ad its home brewery is reportedly “one of the biggest breweries in Belgium, let alone the world.”

The beer is especially popular in Wallonia (the French-speaking region of southern Belgium) where one in two beers drunk is Jupiler.

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