After months of ensuing legal battles between the Flying Dog Brewery and the Michigan Liquor Control Commission, the Liquor Commission has reversed its position pertaining to the ban of Flying Dog’s Belgian-Style IPA Raging Bitch. The controversy began in September 2009, when Flying Dog Brewery applied for a license to sell Raging Bitch, the company’s 20th anniversary commemorative beer, in the state of Michigan. The Michigan Liquor Control Commission barred the sale of Raging Bitch, claiming that the beer’s label is “detrimental to the public health, safety and welfare.”

Flying Dog finally filed suit on March 25th, but not only to overturn their decision, but to deem the Liquor Commission’s ability to ban any beer label that they find offensive unconstitutional. On top of that, Flying Dog Brewery is seeking to recover damages lost from the banning of the beer in Michigan.

“The Michigan Liquor Control Commission’s involuntary reversal of opinion is a victory for craft beer,” Flying Dog CEO and General Partner Jim Caruso said. “Now, the great people of Michigan are no longer denied access to Raging Bitch Belgian-Style IPA, Flying Dog’s top-selling beer. But the fight for First Amendment rights in Michigan continues to rage on.”

Rages on it does indeed. “We’re glad that the people of Michigan are now free to decide for themselves whether Flying Dog’s beer labels are, like the beer, in good taste. Our lawsuit forced the Liquor Commissioners to see at least some of the light. But the litigation won’t end until the Commissioners accept responsibility for the damage they’ve caused by violating the First Amendment,” Flying Dog’s attorney Alan Gura, partner at Gura & Possessky, said.

Well done, Flying Dog, keep fighting the good fight. HST would be proud.

The concept of “ambush marketing” is quite tricky and, in some ways, relatively brilliant. Essentially, it is a marketing campaign developed by a non-sponsor company that interferes with an event sponsored exclusively by a competitor. Major sporting events, such as the Olympics, have fallen prey to these gorilla tactics in the past. The bigger the event, the more money involved, the bigger the deal.

“Events like the Olympics and the World Cup are hugely expensive to put on, so they need big-money sponsors and this in turn means that the organizers must protect aggressively against ambush marketing,” — Phillip Johnson, a visiting senior fellow at Queen Mary, University of London. “But this means there is potentially huge exposure for anyone who manages to outwit them.” Continue Reading »

This story is a few weeks old, but it’s still pretty epic news.

As reported from the AP, “A federal judge on Friday issued an injunction preventing a rival liquor company from using a dripping wax seal on its tequilas sold in the United States, ending a seven year legal battle over the bottle topper.”

Maker’s Mark protected their trademark wax sealed bottle against London based liquor monolith Diageo. Diageo wanted to use a wax seal on a limited production (3,000-4,000 cases) of Cuervo Reserva tequila.

The judge in the case said Maker’s bottle topper “is a unique mark used in an unusual way to draw in the consumer.”

Read more at New York Times, “Maker’s Mark Trademark Wax Seal Is Affirmed“.

I gave the fine people at Monster Beverage Co. a chance. After hearing about their shameless attack on Rock Art Brewery‘s Vermonster, I called Monster up to get their side of the story. They told me they couldn’t comment, but they would send me a statement. They didn’t. Fools. Continue Reading »