Attentive Law
  • Corporate Law
    • Company Formation
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Corporate Financing
    • Business & Corporate Transactions
    • Business Dispute Resolution
  • Intellectual Property
    • Patents >
      • Patent Services
      • Patent Rates
    • Trademarks >
      • Trademark Services
      • File A Trademark Today
      • Trademark Rates
      • Free Trademark Guide
    • Copyrights
  • Family Law
  • Govt. Contracts
  • Immigration
    • Temporary Worker
    • Permanent Worker
    • Student and Exchange Visitor
    • Family Permanent Resident Petitions
    • Temporary Visitors for Business
    • Citizenship Petitions
  • Attorneys
    • Paul Ratcliffe
    • Neil Richman
    • Dominique Callins
    • Jim Miner
    • Patrick Kalellis
  • Contact
    • Contact Us
    • Join Our Team

Not So Happy Hour in Austin

10/7/2013

 
Picture
Recently, the South Austin beer emporium, Whip In, has been contacted by representatives at Dogfish Head Brewery to stop using their federally registered trademark, “Namaste” in connection with a line of beers sold under the name “Namaste Brewing Company.”

In a blog post written on Dogfish Head’s website, they state that:

Because we believe in working collaboratively with other brewers in handling these disputes, we have called and emailed Namaste Brewing in hopes of resolving the matter brewer-to-brewer. (We have not sent a cease-and-desist and have not taken any legal action, as has been reported.) We have given them several creative solutions in an effort to alleviate any hardship they might face in making the changes, including the option to continue to sell the beer at their existing location and at festivals. Another option was to allow them ample time to phase out the name.
The company has made it clear they want to settle this amicably and contrary to media reports, have not sent Whip In a cease-and-desist letter. In the blog post they note that “there is no point in having a trademark unless we actively defend it (and if we don’t defend it this time, anyone can name a beer Namaste), and Dogfish does have a federal trademark for Namaste in the beer world, which covers both breweries and beer.”

Dogfish Head is correct to say that they need to defend their mark. In fact, any trademark owner that is made aware of unauthorized use of their mark should act to protect their mark. This is because U.S. trademark law states that abandonment of a trademark may occur if the owner of the mark allows authorized as well as unauthorized third-parties to use the mark without adequate supervision. Therefore, if Dogfish Head did not monitor the use of its mark and act accordingly to protect the mark, there is a good chance that a court would conclude that the company has lost its exclusive rights to the mark.

Let’s hope that this trademark conflict can be resolve in an amicable manner.

Contact us to effectively monitor your trademarks.

Comments are closed.

    Follow Attentive Law
    on Google+

    Archives

    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013

    Categories

    All
    Acquisition
    Actual Goodwill
    Austin
    Contract Clause
    Conversion
    Customer Agreement
    Domestication
    Employment Agreement
    Experienced Attorneys
    Indemnification
    Kansas
    Limitation Of Liability Clause
    Maryland
    Merger
    Non-compete
    Ohio
    One Size Fits All
    Service Mark Search
    Terms Of Use
    Texas
    Trademark Application
    Trademark Disclaimer
    Trademark Infringement
    Trademark Registration
    Trademark Search
    Trademark Your Logo
    Trademark Your Name
    Use In Commerce
    Uspto
    Virginia
    Washington

    RSS Feed

    Author

    Paul Ratcliffe & John Zevitas

Powered by

BACK TO TOP

The information and materials contained on this website have been prepared by the Attentive Law Group, PLLC for general informational and advertising purposes only. This website and its information are not intended and should not be considered to be legal advice, legal opinion, or the formation of a client-attorney relationship.

© DivTag Templates Ltd | All Rights Reserved
✕