E-Malt.com News article: 2821

EU: Anheuser-Busch Cos., can't register its Budweiser name as a single trademark in all 25 European Union countries, according to the latest ruling in a century-old battle over the beer brand, Bloomberg News posted on June 22.

In rejecting the St. Louis, Mo.-based company's 1996 "community trademark" application, the EU's Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market said the Budweiser name is identical to one already registered by Czech rival Budejovicky Budvar NP in France and Austria. Anheuser-Busch must instead rely on previously held national trademarks.

"Due to the high similarity of the signs and the identity of the goods, the office concludes that there is likelihood of confusion in France and Austria," the trademark office said in its June 10 decision.

After failing to agree on a takeover in the 1990s, the two brewers have been fighting in about 50 countries over the Budweiser and Bud names. Budvar, based in a town called Ceske Budejovice in Czech and Budweis in German, claims brewers have used the name for hundreds of years. Anheuser-Busch argues it has used the trademark since 1876, 19 years before Budvar was established.

Anheuser-Busch will have to apply for trademark registration in five of the EU nations where it doesn't already have protection for the Bud or Budweiser names.

The application for a trademark was filed " to expand our already extensive rights to Budweiser in the EU," Stephen Burrows, the head of Anheuser-Busch's international operations, said.


23 June, 2004