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(Courtesy American Craft Beer LLC)
The beer industry, which has long been plagued by litigious beer and brewery naming controversies, received some sobering news late Wednesday, when word spread that American Craft Beer LLC had successfully secured trademark rights to the word, Beer™.
Here’s what we know…
One of the industry’s more inflammatory voices, American Craft Beer has been covering craft beer news, entertainment and lifestyle since 2012 and it’s been a sometimes tumultuous ride for the organization.
Dismissed by craft beer’s more established and credible publications, American Craft Beer has been accused in the past of everything from whoring themselves out for free beer shipments, to “print pandering” practices.
In 2019, its founder and Editor-In-Chief, Tom Bobak, was arrested in a pre-dawn raid on charges of “beer-hyping” – an unfortunate practice still thought to be widespread throughout craft beer media.
And although all those charges were eventually dismissed, the taint of that unfortunate incident still colors the organization.
More serious accusations include persistent rumors that American Craft Beer LLC might be secretly owned by AB-InBev (which would explain their seemingly endless flacking for breweries like Goose Island, Elysian, Devils Backbone and 10 Barrel Brewing).
American Craft Beer’s Tom Bobak
Which makes the reality that this “questionable” beer news outlet had secured trademark rights to the word Beer™, all the more concerning.
And the fact that American Craft Beer LLC now has legal jurisdiction and control of the industry’s most widely used word, Beer™ has, at least temporarily, brought the industry to a halt…
Industry professionals are reported to be spending lomg hours, barricaded behind closed doors with their legal teams, trying to decipher how American Craft Beer’s control of the word Beer™ will impact their businesses going forward.
Some breweries are already suggesting that they’ll be forgoing the use of the word Beer™ altogether, and going with terms like Ales, Lagers, IPAs or Stouts in future marketing campaigns and labeling, rather than engage in what could prove costly negotiations with American Craft Beer’s legal team. Others are considering getting out of the Beer™ biz altogether and moving into hard seltzers.
Media analysts are stunned…
“I just read the press release we received from American Craft Beer and I’m not at all surprised that Bobak would make an audacious play like this” remarked John Holl, Author of the American Craft Beer Cookbook and the Drink Beer, Think Beer podcast…
“I can’t imagine the amount of money his organization spent, wining and dining enough politicians to make this thing happen. It’s been tough going lately for the industry thanks to the economic impact of COVID-19, and news that this sketchy media organization now controls the word Beer™ is a body blow.”
You can read the American Craft Beer PRESS RELEASE HERE
