Legal Research

It?s not easy being green: Lime Beer Wars

By Jeanette Lee

The Toronto Star and Financial Post have reported on the latest news in beer branding wars. Brick Brewing has launched a new beer in time for the Labour Day weekend: RED BARON LIME. According to the article, Labatt and Anheuser-Busch are seeking an injunction in the Federal Court of Canada against Brick, as well as damages or an accounting of profits, on the basis of trade-mark and copyright violation. The packaging for RED BARON LIME beer displays images of limes and uses the colour green on its labels and packaging. The packaging for BUD LIGHT LIME also displays images of limes and uses the colour green. Both come in clear bottles. The word LIME appears on both in a white script font.

Brick Brewing recently settled a trade-mark dispute with Labatt Canada over packaging similarities between its RED BARON beer and Labatt’s BRAVA beer. In that settlement, Brick reportedly agreed to change its RED BARON label.

Full post as published by Slaw.ca on September 01, 2009 (boomark / email).