Budvar or Budejovicky?
I read that Belgium Customs Officials destroyed 2350 cans of Miller High Life beer - because it's slogan (printed on the can) is 'The Champagne of Beers'. We all know that in Europe, Champagne is a controlled word, only used on sparkling wines from Champagne, France and to be fair, Molson-Coors who own Miller know also - some other party was shipping it themselves!
Which reminded me of the time we stocked Budvar beer (a lovely beer from Czech Republic - not the American stuff made from rice etc).
Having sold our first delivery in 1 weekend (where the name was in English) we received a 'Cease & Desist' letter from Anheuser-Busch, the owners of the American product made with rice etc. As Guinness/Diageo handled this product in Ireland and as we were good customers, we thought this was a bit heavy handed - and told them so! We also told them that they owed us as we were selling a beer that was far better than their stuff (my opinion!) and therefore improving their image! That did not get a great reaction!
To clarify, we were wrong to sell the beer with the name in English, but saw no need to go legal!
The matter was conveniently ignored and shortly afterwards we restocked, but with the name in Czech - Budejovicy Budvar - on the bottles. And it's still a lovely beer! You can try it this weekend as it's sold in most good Off-Licences.
Which reminded me of the time we stocked Budvar beer (a lovely beer from Czech Republic - not the American stuff made from rice etc).
Having sold our first delivery in 1 weekend (where the name was in English) we received a 'Cease & Desist' letter from Anheuser-Busch, the owners of the American product made with rice etc. As Guinness/Diageo handled this product in Ireland and as we were good customers, we thought this was a bit heavy handed - and told them so! We also told them that they owed us as we were selling a beer that was far better than their stuff (my opinion!) and therefore improving their image! That did not get a great reaction!
To clarify, we were wrong to sell the beer with the name in English, but saw no need to go legal!
The matter was conveniently ignored and shortly afterwards we restocked, but with the name in Czech - Budejovicy Budvar - on the bottles. And it's still a lovely beer! You can try it this weekend as it's sold in most good Off-Licences.