German brewery ‘Wacken Brauerei’ patents names from Norse Mythology. Tells other (Scandinavian) breweries to retract all beers with these names. Threatens to “involve lawyers and in the worst case even courts.”. More info here:
They have no case. Many Danish and Swedish beers have used the names for many years so they will loose every case they would try out. A micro brewery with “lawyers” (aka more than one?) How can they afford that? I wonder if the brewery has checked if the lawyers actually have graduated…
And the “excuse” in the official statement is going to ruin them unless they go to the US market and Trump doesn´t put taxes on them.
I think that’s mainly marketing. As the other are using the names for much longer, they have no chance in Scandinavian courts - but with this they are in the media and people here in Germany notice that there is a micro-brewery in Wacken - which I think 99% of all Germans have never heard of…
I hope they fail at any court and that no brewery they wrote to signs anything. And also that they will, in the end, have a financial problem due to lawyer costs and shrinking sales because people boycott them.
True enough, I really hope those clowns are actually dumb enough to take this court and get their asses handed to them. Most likely they won’t though, as this is just some publicty stunt that was probably well-timed to coincide with the world cup. Too bad Germany bit the bullet already, huh?