Courtesy BrewDog)

BrewDog’s Elvis Juice trademark battle with Elvis Presley’s estate continues. And this time the EU is putting the brakes on its bestselling beer in Europe.

BrewDog’s Elvis Juice is a 6.5% ABV grapefruit IPA. It’s been one of the now global craft brewer’s bestsellers ever since it debuted in 2015, and a target for the Elvis Presley estate who are not happy with the company using the icon’s name.

The trademark battle started in 2016, when the Elvis Presley Enterprises (EPE), the company that manages the estate of the late singer, sent the Ellon-headquartered brewery a “cease and desist”  adding that if they didn’t stop using its Elvis branding, the estate would be taking legal action.

Well BrewDog didn’t and Elvis Presley’s estate did.

And BrewDog’s founders James Watt and Martin Dickie humorously countered by legally changing their names to “Elvis.” (Yep they really did that).

Courtesy BrewDog)

“From this point forward, Elvis Juice is named after us, the brewers formerly known as James and Marti, “ James Watt said at the time. “We may even file a case against Mr Presley for using our names on all his records without our written permission,”

But the UK Intellectual Property Office wasn’t so understanding and in 2017 BrewDog was ordered to and to change the name of the beer, or apply to EPE for official permission to use the name.

The brewery appealed the ruling and in 2018 was given permission to trademark ‘BrewDog Elvis Juice’ (but not ‘Elvis Juice’) and they’ve been marketing the beer in the UK under that name ever since. But the European Union, who evidently are bigger Elvis Presley fans than the UK, denied BrewDog exclusive rights to the name in Europe.

And BrewDog appealed that decision, but in a September 21 ruling the EU denied the appeal so the brewer may have to alter the beer’s name yet again when selling it within Europe.