Lagunitas Will Drop Suit Against Sierra Nevada Brewing Over IPA Mark
(Petaluma,CA) – Shortly after TheFullPint made light of the lawsuit Lagunitas was filing over their IPA mark against Sierra Nevada Brewing and their upcoming Hop Hunter IPA, chaos ensued. If our social media feeds were any indication, craft beer fans were outright mad at the turn of events. Just an hour ago, Lagunitas owner Tony Magee went back on Twitter and waved the white flag. Basically, he stated the court of public opinion was much stronger than US trademark law today. Here are his Tweets.
Today, January 13th 2015, has been the worst day ever in 23 years of growing my brewery. Worst. Growing a biz involves defending a biz…
— LagunitasT (@lagunitasT) January 14, 2015
Defending a biz requires answers to Hard Questions. Q's like: Are our Foundations Strong? Are our Flavors right? Are our Labels Defensible?
— LagunitasT (@lagunitasT) January 14, 2015
There r many Courts in the world. For me, over the last month, one Court was a series of rebuffed phone calls. Another was a court of law…
— LagunitasT (@lagunitasT) January 14, 2015
Today was in the hands of the ultimate court; The Court of Public Opinion and in it I got an answer to my Question; Our IPA's TM has limits.
— LagunitasT (@lagunitasT) January 14, 2015
I don't know every answer beforehand, so I feel around for the edges and try to learn. Today I was seriously schooled & I heard you well…
— LagunitasT (@lagunitasT) January 14, 2015
Tomorrow mornin we'll Drop the Infringement Suit & get back to answering other Questions. I don't think I was wrong for wanting to know cuz…
— LagunitasT (@lagunitasT) January 14, 2015
https://twitter.com/lagunitasT/status/555216841493078017
January 13, 2015 @ 9:52 pm
I followed the tweets from the earlier story and now this. Wow, all I can say is that was INTENSE! If anything though cheers to Mr. MacGee for responding to the community. Sucks to be wrong but it’s worse when everyone else can see it except you. The fact that he called himself out here should outweigh his mistake with the lawsuit in the first place.