California Brewery Releases Cease-And-Desist Berry Beer

That’s the new name for a just released beer from Armistice Brewing, after it was confronted by lawyers representing a former ‘Great British Bake Off’ star.

Here’s what happened…

You can understand why Armistice Brewing, a Richmond, California brewery, might have thought that naming its raspberry pastry stout after “Mary Berry,” a former judge on the popular ‘Great British Bake Off’ TV show, was a good idea…

We might have thought the same thing, but would have hopefully come to our senses…

Mary Berry is, after all, a noted British food writer and television personality (think Martha Stewart but with scones and a British accent).

And if we had named our pastry stout after a best-selling author of 75 cook books we definitely wouldn’t have tagged #maryberry on our Instagram feed, which we suspect is how her organization found out about the East Bay brewery’s plans.

Shortly after that posting, Armistice Brewing did receive a cease-and-desist request from Berry’s lawyers over in the UK according forcing the brewery to scramble making last minute adjustments, like changing its name (of course). The brewery also covered its already printed label, which featured a picture of the British baking star, (another move we hope we wouldn’t have made) with upside-down smiley face stickers.

“It was totally intended as an homage, but I get it, people gotta protect their image to the public,” Armistice cofounder Alex Zobel told SFGate. And in an act of last minute brilliance the brewery rebranded its massive pastry stout Cease And Desist Berry (trademark that!).

Beer name litigation pop up in the industry from time. But aside from a recent intellectual property dispute which Guns N’ Roses won against Oskar Blues brewery, it’s been fairly quiet until now…

In retrospect it’s probably fair to advise breweries to not name their beers ANY after big name personalities. The only brewery that could probably get away with releasing a Led Zeppelin beer is Beavertown over in London. And that’s only because its founder, Logan Plant, is Robert Plant’s son.

And nobody needs a Simon Cowell beer… So don’t even start.