E-Malt.com News article: EU: “Bud” beer case should be re-examined – court adviser

AB InBev NV’s appeal to get back the European Union-wide trademark on “Bud” for beer should be re-examined, an adviser to the EU’s top court said, rejecting a lower court’s decision to annul the protection.

“The appeal should be upheld” and “referred back” to the EU’s lower court for a re-examination before the region’s top tribunal can give a final decision, Pedro Cruz Villalon, an advocate general at the European Court of Justice, was quoted as saying by Bloomberg on September, 14.

The Luxembourg-based EU court follows such advice in a majority of rulings.

Today’s case is part of a fight that has raged for more than a century over the name-rights covering use of the Bud brand, pitting AB InBev, the world’s biggest brewer, against Czech competitor Budejovicky Budvar NP. A lower EU court in December 2008 upheld Budvar’s challenge to the EU trademark.

The court at the time said an EU trademark agency had wrongly issued the U.S. brewer Anheuser-Busch, now part of Leuven, Belgium-based AB InBev, with region-wide rights to use Bud on beer and other alcoholic beverages over the objections of Budvar. The decision left the right to use the name “Bud” to be determined in individual countries.

AB InBev said in an e-mail it’s pleased with the outcome, which “validates” its “right to register the Bud trademark in the European Union.”

“A positive decision from the Court of Justice would move Anheuser-Busch InBev one step closer to securing rights to either Budweiser or Bud throughout” the EU, the company said.

AB InBev owns national trademark rights for Bud or Budweiser in 23 of the 27 EU countries. Budvar says it owns the rights because its beer comes from Ceske Budejovice, which is called Budweis in German.

The case is C-96/09 P, Anheuser-Busch v Budejovicky Budvar, OHMI.


15 September, 2010