red-bull
14 August 2013Trademarks

Red Bull threatens action over ‘REDWELL’ trademark

Energy drink company Red Bull has threatened a small UK brewery with legal action unless it withdraws its trademark application for ‘REDWELL’.

Redwell Brewery, which is based near the city of Norwich, says the Austrian company has sent a letter claiming that ‘Redwell’ is too similar to ‘Red Bull’ and will confuse consumers.

The brewery applied for ‘REDWELL’ in May this year in five classes including class 32, which covers goods like beers, non-alcoholic drinks and fruit drinks. It had earlier applied for the lower case ‘redwell’ in class 32 only but withdrew the application in favour of the capitalised version.

Red Bull’s letter apparently claims the application contains its ‘Red’ application as a whole, that ‘well’ is merely descriptive and is too similar to ‘bull’, and that the last two letters are identical.

The complaint adds that consumers will wrongly think ‘Redwell’ goods are produced by Red Bull.

Patrick Fisher, owner and director of Redwell Brewery, told WIPR that his company is trying to negotiate a settlement with Red Bull before the end of August, at which point Red Bull said it will begin legal action unless the dispute is resolved.

He said: “We just want to have the right to use the Redwell logo and branding as we see fit.

“I can’t possibly see how there could be confusion between a lager and an energy drink. We are certainly not planning on forming a Formula One team or sending any men into space any time soon.”

Red Bull is well-known for producing energy drinks but also owns a Formula One racing team and sponsored Felix Baumgartner’s record-breaking freefall and parachute jump from 24 miles above Earth in 2012.

Despite Redwell rejecting any likelihood of its mark clashing with Red Bull’s, Lara Grant, senior attorney at Avidity IP, said there are no “black and white” trademark disputes.

“If the marks are confusingly similar, it would be based on the reputation of Red Bull, which does have an EU trademark for ‘RED’ covering beers – so the same goods as Redwell. Even though they are best known for energy drinks, they could have a strong case.”

She added: “If you have a strong trademark, you want to keep it for yourself. Even if Redwell has acted in good faith, it’s always important for brand owners to maintain their reputation.”

The brewery, which was formed in October last year and employs eight people, supplies beer to buyers in Norwich, London and Edinburgh. In contrast, almost 9,000 people work for Red Bull, which operates in about 160 countries.

Red Bull did not respond to a request for comment.

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