"The Presidential Beer Summit, July 30, 2009: The Trademark Perspective"


President Barack Obama, Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Sergeant James Crowley toast at the start of their meeting in the Rose Garden of the White House, July 30, 2009. Official White House Photo by Pete Souza.

By now everyone not holed up in a cave in Afghanistan has heard about the Obama Beer Fest. What you have not read, however, is the Trademark Perspective of this Lager Drenched Event ! This blog post shall then devote itself, after a few preliminary remarks and introductory photo and links, to the specific beer brands and their trademarks that were featured at this Summit of Beers. After all, here at TrademarkEsq, it is the Trademarks which protect these now even more famous brands from being hijacked by pirates, counterfeiters and infringers.


A. Preliminary Remarks About The Summit Itself

"For the record, Bud Light: Obama; Sam Adams Light: Gates; Blue Moon: Crowley; and nonalcoholic beer, Buckler: Biden."
(source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_obama_harvard_scholar)

One Popular Media Blogger has even characterized Obama's role in this mediation as more "Bartender-in-Chief". "OBAMA MORE BARTENDER THAN MEDIATOR AT BEER SUMMIT: President Barack Obama played bartender-in-chief on Thursday at a “beer summit” of the main players in a racially charged case that he hoped would be a “positive lesson” in a national dialogue on race. Obama, the first black U.S. president, said it was a “friendly, thoughtful” conversation over beer at the White House with prominent Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, who is black, and police Sergeant James Crowley, who is white." (Source: http://www.lbnelert.com)

Perhaps the most salient and important comment to emerge from this dialogue is as follows:

"We agreed to move forward," Crowley said later when asked whether anything had been solved. "I think what you had today was two gentlemen agreeing to disagree on a particular issue. I don't think that we spent too much time dwelling on the past. We spent a lot of time discussing the future." (By PHILIP ELLIOTT, Associated Press Writer Philip Elliott, Associated Press Writer – Fri Jul 31, 8:10 am ET).

B. The Trademark Perspective in the USA

1. BUD LIGHT: President Barack Obama's choice

(a) BUD LIGHT ® (in standard character format)
in International Class #32 for "Beer"
Registration Number 1261873
Registration Date December 20, 1983
Owner (REGISTRANT) Anheuser-Busch, Incorporated CORPORATION
SECT 15. SECT 8 (6-YR). SECTION 8(10-YR) 20040109.
Renewal 1ST RENEWAL 20040109

(b) "BUD LIGHT (and design)"®
in Intl. Class #32 for "Beer"

Registration Number 3165341
Registration Date October 31, 2006
Owner (REGISTRANT) ANHEUSER-BUSCH, INCORPORATED


2. BUCKLER®: V.P. Joe Biden

(a). BUCKLER® (in standard character format)
in Intl. Class #32 for "BEERS; MINERAL AND AERATED WATERS; NON-ALCOHOLIC BEERS AND MALT BEVERAGES; FRUIT JUICES AND FRUIT JUICE DRINKS; SYRUPS USED IN THE PREPARATION OF SOFT DRINKS"
Registration Number 1553153
Registration Date August 22, 1989
Owner (REGISTRANT) HEINEKEN BROUWERIJEN B.V. PRIVATE LIMITED COMPANY NETHERLANDS 2E WETERINGPLANTSOEN 21 AMSTERDAM NETHERLANDS
SECT 15. SECT 8 (6-YR). SECTION 8(10-YR) 20090408.

(b) BUCKLER (and design)"®

in Intl. Class #32 for "BEERS; MINERAL AND AERATED WATERS; NON-ALCOHOLIC BEERS AND MALT BEVERAGES; FRUIT JUICES AND FRUIT JUICE DRINKS; SYRUPS USED IN THE PREPARATION OF SOFT DRINKS"
Registration Number 1562471
Registration Date October 24, 1989
Description of Mark: THE DRAWING IS LINED FOR THE COLORS GOLD, BLUE, RED AND SILVER WHICH ARE CLAIMED AS TRADE MARK FEATURES.
Owner (REGISTRANT) HEINEKEN BROUWERIJEN B.V. PRIVATE LIMITED COMPANY NETHERLANDS
SECT 15. SECT 8 (6-YR). SECTION 8(10-YR) 20090601.



3. BLUE MOON®: Police Officer Crowley
in Intl. Class #32 for "Beer"
Registration Number 3119888
Registration Date July 25, 2006
Owner (REGISTRANT) Coors Global Properties, Inc. CORPORATION COLORADO Suite 170 165 South Union Boulevard Lakewood COLORADO 80228 (LAST LISTED OWNER) MILLERCOORS LLC LTD LIAB CO DELAWARE
(LAST LISTED OWNER) MILLERCOORS LLC LTD LIAB CO DELAWARE

(b) "BLUE MOON (and design)"®

in Intl. Class #16 for "Paper banners, posters, printed paper signs, namely, table tents, paper display cards, paper pennants, pens, stickers, coasters made of paper, paper napkins, cardboard floor display units for merchandising products and note paper." FIRST USE: 19950000. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19950000

in Intl. Class #21 for "Beverage glassware, bottle openers, pitchers, plastic buckets, plastic cups, serving trays not of precious metal, bottle stands, mugs, cups." FIRST USE: 19970100. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19970100

in Intl. Class #25 for "Clothing, namely, shirts, t-shirts, golf shirts, sweatshirts, denim shirts, aprons, tops, shorts, sweatpants, tank tops, jackets, wind resistant jackets, hats and caps, excluding clothing for children." FIRST USE: 19970100. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19970100

in Intl. Class #32 for "Beer." FIRST USE: 19950000. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19950000

Registration Number 3439303
Registration Date June 3, 2008
(LAST LISTED OWNER) MILLERCOORS LLC LTD LIAB CO DELAWARE

Note: In addition, there are at least two other design marks that are registered by this same Owner in connection with the BLUE MOON brand, as follows:




4. SAM ADAMS LIGHT®: Prof. Gates

SAM ADAMS LIGHT®
in Intl. Class #32 for "beverages, namely beer and ale."
Registration Number 2597646
Registration Date July 23, 2002
Other Data: The name "SAM ADAMS" in the mark does not identify a living individual.
Owner (REGISTRANT) BOSTON BEER CORPORATION CORPORATION MASSACHUSETTS 75 Arlington Street Boston MASSACHUSETTS 02130
(LAST LISTED OWNER) BBC BRANDS, LLC LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY, COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS

note: as most everyone know, the preceding and additional brand name, SAM ADAMS, is also registered separately, as are numerous otherSAM ADAMS formative marks, including the following stylized label:


C. Comments on the Trademark Perspective of these Beer Companies and their Brands

The first noticeable and common trait that each of these brands share is that they are protected both in standard character format (or as previously known, in block letter format) and in composite format, e.g., with a design or logo. This has obvious ramifications in purely trademark enforcement parlance, not to mention for the purposes of marketing.

Additionally, it is not a coincidence that each of these brands are protected by trademark registrations on the Principal Register with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The Registrations provide a number of advantages in the U.S., including but not limited to, exclusiveness to the trademark within the U.S., presumptive validity, and after 5 years of use, the opportunity to seek "Incontestable" status via the Sec. 15 Affidavit.

Finally, we will leave it to conspiracy theorists to discuss the import, if any, with respect to the beer brand selections of the parties to this first ever Presidential Beer Summit, aka "Beer Mediation".

Postscript: Rumor has it a Beer Pong Summit is to be held in Helsinki, Finland.

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Until next time,....please remember:

TrademarkEsq is here for you !


Respectfully submitted,


William E. Maguire, Esq.
Los Angeles, Calif.
www.TrademarkEsq.com