American Craft Beer The Best Craft Beer, Breweries, Bars, Brewpubs, Beer Stores, And Restaurants Serving Serious Beer.
The beer biz, which has long been plagued by litigious beer and brewery naming controversies, received some sobering news late Friday, as word spread that American Craft Beer LLC had successfully secured trademark rights to the word Beer™.
One of the industry’s more provocative voices, AmericanCraftBeer.com has been covering craft beer news, entertainment and lifestyle since 2012 and it’s been a sometimes tumultuous ride.
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 widespread “print pandering” practices.
Just last year, it’s 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 pervasive in 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 help to explain their seemingly endless flacking of breweries like Goose Island, Elysian and Devils Backbone). Which makes the reality that this “questionable” media outlet has secured trademark rights to the word Beer™, all the more concerning…
American Craft Beer’s Tom Bobak
And the fact that they now have legal jurisdiction and are in control of the industry’s most widely used word, Beer™, has at least temporarily, brought the biz to a halt…
Breweries and media publications are reported to be spending hours 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 their labeling and marketing campaigns, rather than engage in what could prove to be costly negotiations with representatives at American Craft Beer.
Craft beer media leaders are equally dumbfounded…
“I just read the press release we received from American Craft Beer and although I’m shocked, 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. “I can’t imagine the amount of money his organization spent, wining and dining enough politicians and lobbyists to make this thing happen.”
Read the American Craft Beer PRESS RELEASE HERE
