IN WHAT was considered an industry first, the ongoing turf war between international beer makers Budweiser and Budvar has been resolved in a Cyprus court.
Though only valid in Cyprus, the deal is the first trademark settlement between the companies since World War II.
Anheuser-Busch and Budvar are disputing the Budweiser and Bud trademarks in more than 40 countries.
A-B started using the Budweiser name in 1876, 19 years before the Czech brewer opened.
But the Czechs say they have the right to use that name because Budweiser refers to Budweis, the original German name of the city where Budvar is located, and beer brewed in that area hundreds of years before A-B existed.
Budvar has had the most success in Europe, forcing A-B to share or even yield the trademarks in some countries.
The deal allows Budvar to use “Budweiser,” but only as part of its corporate name of “Budweiser Budvar, National Corporation.” The name also would be restricted to small lettering on the back label of Budvar’s beer sold on the Mediterranean island, according to the St. Louis brewer.
“The settlement eliminates the distraction of ongoing litigation in Cyprus and protects our strong trademark rights in [Cyprus] by removing the prominent use of the Budweiser name from [Budvar’s] front label,” Steve Burrows, chief executive of the brewer’s foreign brewing subsidiary, said in a recent press release.
So what’s in a name? A hell of a lot, advertising professionals will tell you. Especially when two different products, with divergent backgrounds and qualities are selling under the same brand name in the same market.
For more than a century, America’s Budweiser and the Czech Republic’s Budweiser Budvar have been at loggerheads over trademark rights all over the world, and now the dispute has only recently finally come to arrived in Cyprus.
Many of the popular agricultural, natural, or manufactured products consumers find on supermarket shelves consist of or contain the names of the geographic places in which they originate.
Such geographic origin designations, usually known as “geographic indications” (“GIs”), are signs used to indicate the regional origin of particular goods or services. They can convey to consumers some of the important or desirable characteristics of the goods or services that are attributable to their geographic origin.
GIs are considered valuable business interests because of the underlying value associated in identifying products with the quality and reputation of a particular geographic region.
Anheuser-Busch first brewed Budweiser beer in St Louis in 1876 while the Budweiser Budvar brewery was launched in 1895. But fFor centuries previouslybefore, beers from the town of Budweis, Czechoslovakia, were known as Budweiser beers. Its correct name in Czech is Bud?jovick? Budvar.
The Budweiser brewery was founded in the town of Ceske Budejovice (Budweis in German), using water from an underground lake.
The Czech beer is sold in the United States under the name Czechvar, and in fact Britain is the only country where, following a court ruling, both beers are allowed to be sold as Budweiser.
In some countries, such as Italy and Spain, where the Czechs registered their trademark first, Anheuser-Busch has been forced to sell its beer as Bud. Anheuser-Busch lost a court case in London when it took criminal action against the importers of Budweiser Budvar, which claimed on the back label of the beer that it was the “original Budweiser”.
But Cyprus has become probably the first country where the quarrel has been resolved amicably. The two companies, and their respective importers on the island, recently reached an in- court settlement.
Anheuser-Busch had sought trademark damages from their Czech rivals and limitation of use. But they agreed to drop their compensation claims, in return for which Bud?jovick? Budvar will move its “Brewed by Budweiser” label from the front of bottles to the rear so that it is less visible.
The agreement is applicable to the Cypriot market alone, and is effective as of 1st September 1.
According to Budvar’s Cyprus importers, the case took just one-and-a-half days in court, an indication that the two brewers were keen to come to terms.
“Globally speaking, the Americans win half of the cases, the Czechs the other half,” an industry professional told the Mail yesterday.
Despite the identical names, the two beers are radically different. Budvar is a golden coloured beer, with a full flavour and a bitterness resembling a pilsner. It’s considered a premium beer, i.e. brewed exclusively in its country of origin.
Budweiser, usually simply called Bud and often marketed with the slogan ‘This Bud’s For You’, is a best-selling beer in the United States. It is aged in tanks containing beechwood strips that give it a smooth taste.
The “which is better” debate will rage on forever, but one reviewer on the internet had this interesting remark about the Czech concoction: “This is probably pretty close to what American Budweiser tasted like 120 years ago.”
Still, the court settlement is unlikely to have any meaningful impact on the local market, 90 per cent of which is dominated by three brands: Carlsberg, KEO and Heineken.
(Additional information www.stltoday.com)
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