WIPR survey: Readers criticise BrewDog trademark actions
WIPR readers have criticised Scottish brewery BrewDog’s actions in a trademark disagreement with a Birmingham-based pub.
Recently, WIPR reported that the brewery had backed down in the spat, apologising for its actions and blaming its “trigger happy” lawyers.
Brother and sister Joshua and Sallie McFadyen, who had originally named their pub Lone Wolf, renamed it The Wolf after receiving a letter from BrewDog’s lawyers.
In December 2016, the brewery launched Lone Wolf, a line of vodka and gin. According to BrewDog, it trademarked ‘Lone Wolf’ in 2015.
“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 a blog post from the brewery.
The spat and the apology caused a Twitter storm, featuring a lot of backlash against the brewery.
And just 30% of WIPR readers believed BrewDog made the right call.
One reader said while it was the right choice to make, the explanation was disingenuous.
“The two founders made the mistake to overreach and then they tried to blame their poor judgment on ‘trigger happy’ lawyers,” they said.
Another claimed that BrewDog should never have put itself in that situation and should have a “firmer grip on their legal representatives” instead of hiding behind the “we didn’t realise” excuse.
One reader explained that the brewery’s entire existence is based on PR spin “that they are a tiny start-up battling the big corporate monoliths in their industry” and said that acting “exactly like the companies they attempt to demonise was a massive error on their part”.
However, one reader backed the brewery, adding that the marks were identical for highly similar goods/services.
“Brewdog were well within their rights to take action. What if the Lone Wolf bar happened to turn into a specialist vodka bar?” said the reader.
The reader added that the brewery normally gets its commercial calls right, but the decision to “cave in to the backlash was daft and reactionary”.
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