BrewDog makes U-turn in trademark spat with pub

Scottish brewery BrewDog has backed down in a trademark infringement spat against a pub in Birmingham, UK.

Brother and sister team Joshua and Sallie McFadyen had originally named the pub Lone Wolf, but after a letter from BrewDog’s lawyers, they renamed it The Wolf.

In December last year, the brewery launched Lone Wolf, a line of vodka and gin.

In a turn of events, James Watt, a co-founder of BrewDog, tweeted yesterday (now deleted): “Our lawyers got a bit trigger happy. We are happy for the Lone Wolf bar in Birmingham to keep using the name.”

BrewDog had faced a backlash on Twitter, but unfortunately for the pub, the brewery’s change of heart came too late.

“Shame we had to spend money rebranding because of ‘lawyers’,” the bar responded with.

Later on yesterday, Watt also tweeted: “Earlier today we contacted Lone Wolf bar and said we would not only cover all costs, but invited them up to make their own gin with us.”

A spokesperson for BrewDog said it had no comment at this time.

This is not the first time BrewDog has hit the headlines.

In October last year, WIPR reported that the co-founders of the Scottish brewery changed their name to Elvis after allegedly receiving a legal threat from the estate of Elvis Presley.

Watt and Martin Dickie legally changed their name by deed poll, after they allegedly received a notice from the lawyers of Presley’s estate stating that the brewery is not allowed to call its blood orange and grapefruit-infused IPA ‘Elvis Juice’.

Today's other top stories

Ford in fuel patent win at Federal Circuit

TC Heartland v Kraft Foods: no clear winner yet

Did you enjoy reading this story?  Sign up to our free daily newsletters and get stories like this sent straight to your inbox