What a Bunch of Idiots: Coronado Attacks Elysian

Update: I posted a follow up to this story that you should read.

 

On this blog, I usually try to avoid expressing opinions. I try to maintain my objectivity. Not this time. I wanted to say that up front in case it sounds like I’m ranting or in case I fail to be logical or rational. This time it’s personal.

According to a report yesterday on BeerPulse.com, Coronado Brewing Company (CBC) is suing Elysian Brewing Company. Yep, it’s another trademark infringement issue. Over the last few years other Washington breweries got the ugly end of this stick. This time it’s Elysian’s turn and the issue is the use of the word idiot.


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According to BeerPulse.com, Coronado Brewing Company claims that Elysian Brewing Company’s Idiot Sauvin IPA is a “knock off” of a Coronado Brewing Company trademark. What’s more, CBC claims that Elysian is attempting “to associate Elysian’s goods unfairly with those of CBC and to divert business from CBC.”


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The term knock off means something. It suggests a plan to directly imitate. It implies the theft of an idea. Apparently, Coronado Brewing Company did not refer to it as an “unfortunate coincidence of independent invention” or an “unintentional infringement.” In these kinds of legal matters, where very expensive letters are written by fast-talking people in designer suits, I image words to be very carefully chosen. They said it was a knock off.

It gets worse.

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The report on BeerPulse.com quotes Coronado Brewing Company’s claims: “The Defendant’s mark and materials suggest . . . that the India Pale Ales . . . sold by the Defendant are those of CBC. Yet, the Defendant’s goods are not of the same quality as CBC’s goods. The unsuspecting consumer can be angered by this misleading advertisement.”

Really? Seriously? Does Coronado Brewing believe that? If the people (not lawyers) at Coronado Brewing believe that line of crap, they deserve to be physically harmed. They deserve to have their butts kicked by a bunch of pipe-toting brewers in steel-toe XtraTuffs. To be clear, I do not honestly think they believe it. Knowing beer people like I do, I would bet they’re nice people.

I am not a lawyer and have never played one on TV, but I smell bored attorneys and billable hours.

Recognize that I am taking BeerPulse.com at their word. I suppose they could have made all of this up. I doubt it. They are usually on top of things and are often out front with stories like this. I have not yet found any other sources of information on this one.

I am pretty bothered by all of this trademark infringement crap to begin with, but when another brewery steps up and accuses Elysian Brewing of lacking creativity, originality and ethics, that really boils my wort.

Let’s get it straight, Dick Cantwell (Elysian’s Brewmaster) does not need to steal ideas. If there is one thing he does not lack, it is creativity. Truth is, he probably has too many original ideas floating around in that big brain of his already. On a national level he is recognized as an industry leader, a trail blazer and (dare I say) a bit of a genius. Who the hell are you to accuse him of stealing an idea?

Dick, Dave and Joe (Elysian’s co-owners) did not instigate some plan to dupe anybody. Coronado Brewing knows that. Maybe their lawyers don’t, but they do. Elysian made a beer using Nelson Sauvin hops. Idiot Sauvin is a play on words. It unfairly takes advantage of the term idiot savant. But that is it. This is exactly the kind of name Elysian gives their beers: clever, quirky and sometimes even bizarre. No malice. No evil plan. No carefully crafted plot to destroy Coronado’s brand.

If Coronado’s lawyers decided that the company needed to file this suit in order to protect the trademark, that’s one thing. Business is business. I understand and respect people’s rights when it comes to trademarks. But this kind of accusation is another thing altogether. I cannot believe that Rick and Ron Chapman, the founders of Coronado Brewing, actually hold Elysian Brewing in such low esteem as to make such insane claims. I am quite certain that they do not. And that is what upsets me.

I smell blood-thirsty lawyers and billable hours. Either that or my dog just farted. Hard to tell the difference.

Read what BeerPulse.com reported.

 

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