BrewDog apologises for actions in trademark clash with pub

Scottish brewery BrewDog has apologised for its actions in a trademark infringement clash with a pub in Birmingham, UK, saying the brewery “made a mistake” in how it had acted.

BrewDog’s lawyers sent a letter to brother and sister team Joshua and Sallie McFadyen, who had originally named their pub Lone Wolf.

After receiving the letter, the pub renamed to The Wolf.

The brewery launched Lone Wolf, a line of vodka and gin, in December last year. According to BrewDog, it trademarked ‘Lone Wolf’ in 2015.

But earlier this week, WIPR reported that James Watt, a co-founder of BrewDog, tweeted that the brewery’s lawyers got a “bit trigger happy”.

“We are happy for the Lone Wolf bar in Birmingham to keep using the name,” he added, in a now deleted tweet.

Then, on Wednesday, March 29, the brewery published a blog post outlining the actions it had taken against the pub.

“Our wider team and legal partners, acting entirely in our best interests, informed them that we owned the name and they would have to stop using it. Just as we’d do if someone opened a bar called BrewDog,” said the blog.

It added that the brewery should take the view to only enforce its trademarks if something “really detrimental” is happening to the business.

“And here, I do not think that was the case. As soon as I found out, I reversed the decision and offered to cover all of the costs of the bar,” said the post.

The brewery also went on to discuss the apparent ‘Draft Punk’ bar in Leeds, calling it “opportunistic lies combined with inaccurate journalism”.

BrewDog said that there was no bar and no cease-and-desist letter from the brewery.

“The other party tried to register ‘Draft Punk’ as a trademark, but we own the ‘Punk’ trademark for beer, so naturally we objected as that is one of our trademarks,” said the blog.

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