a good bud

Add things I never knew: Budweiser is a Czech beer from the Budweiser Budvar brewery. It has been around since 1895. And it's *good*. Ah, but there's this little problem of a trademark dispute:

The history of disputes over Budějovický Budvar’s trademarks dates back to the beginning of the last century. For decades, one of the major US breweries had tried to buy the rights to its trademarks from Budějovický Budvar, initially only for the territory of the US. Just before the Second World War, this brewery in fact was successful in its attempts. This US brewery has continued its efforts to obtain Budějovický Budvar’s trademarks until today.

Budějovický Budvar is therefore currently defending its historical rights to its trademarks against Anheuser-Busch, which is attacking Budějovický Budvar through over 40 lawsuits and more than 40 administrative proceedings before patent authorities all over the world. A large majority of the courts’ decisions uphold Budějovický Budvar’s rights to its trademarks. Budějovický Budvar has recently won trademark disputes e.g. in the UK, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Greece, Portugal, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and New Zealand.

My knowledgeable hosts suggested that AB might have ...er... started using the name without permission or compensation... and they continue their attempts to wrest control of the name away from the original brewery to this day.

Posted by Gene at February 12, 2005 04:51 PM | TrackBack