beer
27 June 2016Trademarks

Cheers!: UK breweries settle ‘Hells’ trademark dispute

A trademark dispute between two UK breweries over the word ‘Hells’ has been settled after one brewer agreed to stop using the term.

Norwich-based Redwell Brewery has agreed to stop using the name after it was targeted in a passing off lawsuit by Camden Town Brewery at the English High Court.

Redwell said it accepted that the Camden-based brewery used the brand name first.

But Redwell previously claimed that ‘hells’ is a common term for a light German beer dating to the 19th century, and is used by more than 35 brewers in the UK, Germany, the US and elsewhere.

Camden Town Brewery, which filed the lawsuit last year, makes its own Hells-branded lagers. It argued that the name infringed its brands and may cause confusion.

Details of the settlement have not been made available.

Patrick Fisher, co-owner of Redwell, previously told WIPR: “Camden have accused us of passing our own Redwell Hells off as Camden’s, by which they mean we have actively gone into the marketplace pretending to be a brewery other than Redwell.

“This is a ridiculous accusation. Our branding is different, our product badge is different and we would have no reason to pretend to be another brewery to sell our own products, as we can do that very well ourselves.”

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