West Sixth start up brewery being sued by Magic Hat parent company over logo

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zmanzorro

zmanzorro

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That is nuckin' futs! I never liked Magic Hat stuff anyway. Just gives me one more reason to not drink their stuff. If I could go to the tap room and buy a pint in KY, I would. Good luck to the folks at West Sixth Brewing!
 
I think it's absurd that a 9 is an upside down 6. Holy crap!


unfrozenCaveLawyer_1040.jpg

"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I'm just a caveman. I fell on some ice and later got thawed out by some of your scientists. Your world frightens and confuses me! Sometimes the honking horns of your traffic make me want to get out of my BMW.. and run off into the hills, or wherever.. Sometimes when I get a message on my fax machine, I wonder: "Did little demons get inside and type it?" I don't know! My primitive mind can't grasp these concepts. But there is one thing I do know - 6 clearly precedes 9. I rest my case."
 
Horrible. Pretty patheitic that there parent company is in costa rico!?
#9 was one that got me into "craft", sad to see this happening to such a small start up.

Proudly signed the petition!
 
I visited the West Sixth brewery in Dec 2012. They have great business model and they are doing fantastic things for the east side of Lexington. oh and great beer too..!! no more Magic Hat for me either.
 
ncweasel said:
I visited the West Sixth brewery in Dec 2012. They have great business model and they are doing fantastic things for the east side of Lexington. oh and great beer too..!! no more Magic Hat for me either.
Click to expand...

I agree. We visited back in April and I was very impressed with what they have going. Hopefully they can keep rolling.
 
Well unfortunately I just bought a bunch of MH Encore but no more of their stuff after that's gone. I knew they were big but still thought they were run by real beer people and not a megacorp. What a ridiculous lawsuit. "Irreparable harm" my ass.
 
I heard Magic Hat is going to sue the Beatles for their song "Revolution #9."

Then they're going after Beethoven for Symphony No. 6 (after all, it's an upside down 9) and Symphony No. 9.

Our world...sheesh.
 
Maybe they'll sue whoever invented the "yin-yang" symbol since that appears to have a "6" AND an inverted "6".

And now I suppose I'll have to pay a royalty every time I want to 69 my g/f... although, I should be okay if I call it "sixty-nine" and not "sixty-inverted-six"..
 
I use to live in Georgetown, KY next time I am home I will definitely get some of their beer and stop in for a pint. I was never really a fan of Magic Hat beer the #9 no quite a pal ale is really not that good to me more hype than beer
 
The corporate cats are not happy with the surge of craft breweries. A local brewery named themselves "Fezziwigs Brewing Co." BBC came after them because they have a beer named Fezziwig. This is far more absurd. The logo is similar, but it's not the same!

I agree with everyone else, I didn't care for magic hat all that much anyways. Never again will I drink their beer.
 
I'm actually a fan of #9 and we just started getting it out here. I'd like to see a scan of the lawsuit they were served with before I get out the torch and pitchfork, but if this is really how they operate then Magic Hat, or rather these folks, won't be getting any more of my cash.
 
I was just about to post about this, but I wanted to check and make sure another thread hadn't been started. I just tried the West 6th IPA a few weeks ago, and it's very very good. If Magic Hat has to resort to this kind of garbage, something must be suffering in their business model or their beer. I gladly signed the petition and left a nice message on Magic Hat's Facebook page.

(Although, I must say that West 6th must be thrilled at all this free publicity! :ban:)
 
I don't know anything about either one of these breweries but there are some similarities in the two logos. What pisses me off is, out here there is a general respect and fellowship among the micros. Micros aren't competing wih other Micros as much as they could be competing with the big three. If I was thier father, id slap them both on the wrist and tell them to get along and focus on the big picture. What a waste of time and money.
Whether I think its similar or not, Il sign that petition. That's total bull****.
 
TheJasonT said:
Looks like West Sixth might actually be in the wrong according to this statement from Magic Hat...

http://new.pitchengine.com/pitches/0ab90552-225c-4a77-bf2e-79ecdcd09c15

We need to stop this stuff. We need to be fighting AB InBev and MillerCoors, not each other.
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I don't know, It still seems like the West Sixth name is pretty evident on the label, and "encircled number logo"? That's a pretty broad design style. Surely there are other beers that use it without confusion. Sounds like they just got some dopey distributors.
 
#9 tastes like hot rotting garbage. Their decision to sue another company doesn't change that fact. Who in their right mind would buy anything that they honestly thought resembled #9? That beer is the worst.
 
TheJasonT said:
Looks like West Sixth might actually be in the wrong according to this statement from Magic Hat...

http://new.pitchengine.com/pitches/0ab90552-225c-4a77-bf2e-79ecdcd09c15

We need to stop this stuff. We need to be fighting AB InBev and MillerCoors, not each other.
Click to expand...

Did you read the actual letters? Looks to me 6th was willing to change a few things to help, but magic hat kept pushing and pushing. Finally 6th got pissed off and had enough.

I'm with the local boys on this one!
 
They want to claim that West Sixth stole their logo, but the logo for their cucumber hibiscus looks an awful lot like a certain soft drink logo.

Quite a few bars in Lexington and even up here in Cincinnati have already pulled Magic Hat from their offerings.

Magic-Hat-Cucumber-Hibiscus-Ale.jpeg
 
Seems West Sixth has a solid point. I like their last line - lets bury the hatchet and down a beer together.
 
Jay1 said:
I don't know anything about either one of these breweries but there are some similarities in the two logos. What pisses me off is, out here there is a general respect and fellowship among the micros. Micros aren't competing wih other Micros as much as they could be competing with the big three. If I was thier father, id slap them both on the wrist and tell them to get along and focus on the big picture. What a waste of time and money.
Whether I think its similar or not, Il sign that petition. That's total bull****.
Click to expand...


Craft Brewers compete with eachother far more than they do with BMC

craft beer is gaining market share but it still only accounts for 6% or so of total beer sales - there are 2400+ craft breweries competing for that small share

there are enough similarities to the two logos that justify Magic Hat wanting to protect their logo. how they are going about it, what the discussions have been and the rest of the "details" are just he said she said for now.

IMO west sixth are the ones handling it poorly by trying to bring the public into this legal matter

putting the words around a logo doesn't simply remove any trademark infringement
 
terrapinj said:
Craft Brewers compete with eachother far more than they do with BMC

craft beer is gaining market share but it still only accounts for 6% or so of total beer sales - there are 2400+ craft breweries competing for that small share

there are enough similarities to the two logos that justify Magic Hat wanting to protect their logo. how they are going about it, what the discussions have been and the rest of the "details" are just he said she said for now.

IMO west sixth are the ones handling it poorly by trying to bring the public into this legal matter

putting the words around a logo doesn't simply remove any trademark infringement
Click to expand...

what trademark infringement a 6 and 9 are totally different one is a circle with a six and compass the other has a 9 compass and some crazy art work I guess you could say a 3 and 8 look similar maybe childers motor sports should sue the 8 and 88 teams
 
hillybilly said:
what trademark infringement a 6 and 9 are totally different one is a circle with a six and compass the other has a 9 compass and some crazy art work I guess you could say a 3 and 8 look similar maybe childers motor sports should sue the 8 and 88 teams
Click to expand...

they use similar font for the numbers, a circular design and both use a star/Astrix, with the west sixth compass being located near the same position as the # sign for #9

i'm not saying it is in fact an infringement but they certainly have similarities

magic hat has every right and is required to protect their trademark - I just don't feel it's necessary to post public (snarky) responses back and forth
 

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