Kommentarer till Fuller’s threatens to sue Sweden’s Sigtuna Brygghus

Av: BeerSwedenDarren

BeerSwedenDarren — Tue, 18 May 2010 21:15:30 +0000

Mr Sharpe as I live and breathe! Great to see you here on BeerSweden

Av: Nick Sharpe

Nick Sharpe — Tue, 18 May 2010 21:11:49 +0000

ESB IS registered as a brand by Fullers, just as London Pride is too. If any brewery called a beer London Pride, they would expect a legal missile from Fullers up their brew-kettle! Many brands use letters; XXXB, XPA, HSB, HSD and surely many more, all registered as product brands and all protected just like ESB. Just because we all refer to Indian Pale Ales as IPAs, a generic category, (even though most IPAs are not brewed in the UK for export to British colonies) does not mean that ESB is another catagory.

If anyone insists on creating a catagory for ‘ESBs’ then it must follow the rules and be a party-gyled, stronger version of a previously existing British-type bitter ale. This means that ESB is the ‘ESB’ of London Pride, but not necessarily that Ruddles County is the ‘ESB’ of Ruddles Best. They are two different brews!

Av: Øl-nyt: Nørrebro Bryghus, Danske Ølentusiaster, Bryggeriet Refsvindinge, RateBeer, Beerwalk osv. « Beerticker.dk BETA

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 20:40:03 +0000

[...] i London truer med at sagsøge Sigtuna Brygghus fra Sverige over brug af ESB navnet. Fuller’s threatens to sue Sweden’s Sigtuna Brygghus [...]

Av: Mattias Hammenlind

Mattias Hammenlind — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 06:46:04 +0000

Yeah Tomas…You told me a lot of stories over the past years, and there´s not a chance in hell i can remember them all …
What can i say? I´m a rebel! I didn´t actually think Fullers would be interested…

I´ll be more careful next time

Mattias Hammenlind
Head Brewer, Sigtuna Brygghus

Av: Bruno

Bruno — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:01:50 +0000

Well said Thomas…

Av: Anonym

Anonym — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 18:56:22 +0000

Thomas, you are not adressing the judicial question of whether the brand has degenerated or not. Even if the brand is registered, the protection doesn’t apply if it has degenerated into a generic description of products of that kind. The fact that the etiquette ”ESB” is the accurate decription of a certain beer type is pretty obvious to me. See the links below.

http://shbf.se/documents/typdefs/Oltypsdefinitioner.pdf

http://www.ratebeer.com/beerstyles/premium-bitter-esb/101/

Av: Thomas Bingebo

Thomas Bingebo — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 15:20:24 +0000

The anom guy is wrong. ESB is a brand-name and would stick in any court in Europe (not the US). Bitter is ok but ESB is not. I told the story to the brewer at Sigtuna a long time ago about Jämtland and still they so the same mistake…call it a Special Pale Ale or Strong Bitter…or nwhen in doubt – fuck it!

Av: Thomas Bingebo

Thomas Bingebo — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 15:15:55 +0000

Samma sak hände med Jämtlands Bryggeri (Postiljon ESB blev SPA) och ESB är ett varumärke och INTE en ölsort, så det är bara att respektera detta. Så jag tycker att det är löjligt att påstå att de ”stora” försöker knäcka de ”små”. Ett registredat varumärke är ett varumärke och inget annat. Så funkar det.

///Thomas Bingebo
Bryggare
Oceanbryggeriet

Av: Anonym

Anonym — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 12:02:35 +0000

Beeing a beer nerd and a lawyer, naturally these things interest me. Although I’m not an expert in the Intellectual Properties field, I’m pretty sure that Fullers wouldn’t be successful in a swedish court. ESB is just a description, not a brand. It’s what you call a ”degenererat varumärke”, such as the classic example Vespa. Fullers claim is as absurd as if the owners of Thomas Hardy’s would sue everyone using the description Barley Wine.

Av: Maltjerry

Maltjerry — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 09:12:43 +0000

This has happened before in Sweden with Jämtlands Bryggeri. If I remember correctly, Postiljon also used to mention ”ESB”. They were also asked to drop it. I also seem to remember that if you bought a Postiljon for a good while after, ESB continued to appear on Systembolaget receipts.