The dispute around the name for Cola-Mix
Specific and a walk – confusingly similar?
Bottles of Cola-Mix “bug” in the Shop of the brewery “Lang-Bräu” in Wunsiedel. Photo: Nicolas Armer/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
Specific is a good mate, a walk to the Dearest – and both are names for a mixture of Cola and orange lemonade. Still. Because an upper Franconian brewery must rename your drink now.
“Walk – Don’t call it Spezi” is the Slogan for a new Cola-Mix of upper Franconia. Translated, the phrase means as much as “walk – don’t call it Spezi”.
“A small provocation that was,” admits Richard Hopf. But the Slogan is taken literally, would not have thought the managing Director of the brewery Lang-Bräu.
Just once a day shelves stand a walk in the super market, as the 33-Year-old after his own account got a message. The Brauhaus Riegele from Augsburg, which was specied in the 1950s to protect, was threatened with a restraining order. The Name of your brand to Confuse similar.
“In addition, specific has inserted, itself produced by a small to medium-sized brewery, a lot of effort, money and resources over the years in brand building,” explained Sebastian Priller, managing Director of the brewery Riegele. “And now, in a time in which the investments are bearing fruit, freeloaders, you want to benefit, is not correct.”
“We wanted to start in any Form of any attack,” asserts Richard Hopf. In the seventh Generation of brewing in Wunsiedel is now beer, now you want to develop a own lemonade. “We have simply recognized that it is trendy, iconic. We also want to offer what is non-Alcoholic in a beer bottle.”
A year and a half, you would have fiddled in the formulation, with a PR-Agency, the Slogan developed, and Yes, even patent lawyers advise. At least with barky, the lawyers would have seen no problems. “The Name is easy for a Person you like. For something Sweet, full-bodied,” says Rudolf Hopf, maybe as a brother in the family brewery. So they were “walk – don’t call it Spezi” as a word and word – image-brand.
The application will check whether all the conditions are right. “The trademark office does not check, however, in principle, a collision of the mark applied for with an earlier trade mark,” says trade lawyer Arthur Kempter, of the law firm Hild & colleagues. In the end, it was often a matter of interpretation, even in the case of specic and a walk.
Again and again, therefore, there is a dispute about the brands: for many Years a “chocolate raged, for example, load-war” between Milka and Ritter Sport. Until the Federal court of justice recently ruled: Ritter Sport remains the only well-known square of chocolate in the German super market shelves. Apple also attracts because of its brand regularly before the court, even against small Start-ups. A Petition for a recipes App, just tried your bulb to defend the Logo against the bitten Apple of the group and the dispute somehow avert.
“We try to avoid legal disputes,” stressed Priller Riegele from the brewery. Eight Breweries are allowed to fill specific, but only against a license. With Almdudler, the according to own statements for the past three years, the Austrian trademark rights for specific has, it was agreed at the end of out-of-court. Also with a Long-Bräu, the lawyers negotiated a Declaration to cease and desist: The brewery is allowed to use up their stocks, then you must set the production under the name. “An extremely fair solution,” says Priller.
“We are shocked that the brewery Riegele in the case of Belgium in a tie,” says, however, Rudolf Hopf. “But, unfortunately, we have no war chest.” A process would take at least two years, in the time you would have to take the drink from the market. So you signed the statement, from hung all the posters and deleted any advertising on the Internet. Even the T-Shirts that leave the brewery with the Slogan printed, are long since shredded.
“We are now back at the very beginning,” says the 36-Year-old, the “not allowed to mention a walk” in Public. Under the Hashtag #verbotengut the brewery in the social networks addiction but effective advertising to a new name. Suggestions there is more than enough – instead of a walk, maybe honey…?
