It wasn’t so much a question as a demand when English brewery Fullers discovered Swedish micro Sigtuna Brygghus had used the acronym ESB on bottles of their new Extra Sigtuna Bitter.

In a letter sent to the Swedish brewer Fullers threatened legal action unless it immediately removed the letters ESB from the front label of Extra Sigtuna Bitter, stating it exclusively owns the ESB trademark in the UK and Europe.

Although Sigtuna agreed to comply with Fullers’ request they had already ordered thousands of labels with ESB printed on them, leaving them little choice but to cross out the offending letters on every single bottle by hand!

Sigtuna told BeerSweden that new labels are on the way but until then you can buy these ‘specially decorated’ bottles of ESB Extra Sigtuna Bitter via the Sytembolaget’s beställningssortiment; Art No. 89968 and 26.90 SEK for a 500ml bottle.

A few days ago BeerSweden broke the news that UK brewery Fuller’s had threatened legal action against Swedish microbrewery Sigtuna Brygghus unless it removed the acronym ESB from bottles of its ESB Extra Sigtuna Bitter.

BeerSweden contacted Fuller’s to ask for their side of the story and the brewery’s Export Controller Michael Campbell-Lamerton issued the following statement:

”Fuller’s first launched ESB in 1971 and the beer has become a classic both in the UK and in our export markets. Fuller’s has owned this trademark in both the UK and Europe for many years and naturally, the company will seek to protect it.

”We are grateful to Sigtuna Brygghus for their co-operation in this matter and wish them luck with the beer, whatever alternative name they choose to use.”