A North Carolina craft brewer seeking to trademark its name, Natty Greene’s, is facing opposition from Anheuser-Busch, maker of Natural Light beer.

 

Greensboro, N.C.-based Natty Greene’s Brewing Co. filed an application for a trademark of the phrase “Natty Greene’s” with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office last August. In its application, the craft brewer said it’s used the phrase in commerce for a decade.

 

Natty Greene’s is named for Nathanael Greene, a Revolutionary War general for whom dozens of U.S. cities and counties have been named, including Greensboro.

 

“We really wanted to attach the name to the community,” said Kayne Fisher, who co-founded what’s grown to become the third largest brewer based in North Carolina with college roommate Chris Lester.

 

Natty Greene’s has grown annual production to 17,000 barrels and recently started shipping its beer to parts of South Carolina and Virginia.

 

It was that growth outside its state borders that prompted the trademark application for the company’s name, Fisher said. Natty Greene’s successfully trademarked its beers, including Buckshot Amber Ale and Southern Pale Ale, this year.

 

But St. Louis-based A-B, the North American headquarters for A-B InBev, filed an opposition Wednesday for the North Carolina brewer’s application.

 

A-B introduced Natural Light beer to the market in 1977, making it the brewer’s first reduced-calorie light beer. After the launch, A-B trademarked the phrases “Natty Light,” “Fatty Natty” and “Natty Daddy.” A-B also sells Natural Ice beer.

 

“Since at least 1998, and well prior to the filing date of the application, (A-B) has established a family of Natty-formative marks used in connection with beer,” A-B states in its opposition filing, adding it has “sold millions of dollars’ worth of beer under the Natty marks, and has spent millions of dollars advertising and promoting its products under these trademarks.”

 

A-B spokesman Adam Warrington said it’s routine for companies to oppose trademark filings to protect their intellectual property and stressed that its opposition only relates to the trademark, not Natty Greene’s ability to sell beer.

 

“A trademark opposition concerns only an applicant’s right to register a mark,” Warrington said in an email. “With that, Anheuser-Busch has filed a notice of opposition against the Natty Greene’s Brewing Company’s beer trademark application, based on our established right in NATTY-related trademarks. Natty Light is a well-known national brand that we have invested in for more than 15 years.”

 

Natty Greene’s has not yet filed an answer with the trademark office related to the opposition, but Fisher said he’ll continue to seek the trademark.

 

“I feel it’s unfounded, that it’s a nuisance filing,” Fisher said. “We’re a blip on the radar to them, and I don’t think there’s any confusion between us and Natty Light.”

 

Trademark battles have become common in the beer industry nationwide as the number of craft brewers grows.

 

In December, Montana-based craft brewer Big Sky Brewing sued A-B, alleging Big Sky had used the slogan “hold my beer and watch this” since at least 2004, and A-B was infringing on its trademark by using the phrase in advertising. A-B and Big Sky settled the dispute in January, after A-B removed several videos for its Bud Light brand on YouTube that highlighted the phrase.

Source: http://www.stltoday.com/

Anheuser-Busch and MillerCoors, two of the world’s biggest beer makers, are posting online what’s inside bottles of Budweiser and Miller Lite after pressure from a food blogger.

 

The two companies on Thursday posted the ingredients of some of their most popular brands, and promised to be more transparent in the future. The announcements come a day after blogger Vani Hari posted a petition on FoodBabe.com to get major brewers to list what’s in their beverages.

 

Anheuser-Busch posted the ingredients for its two top-selling brands on its website, tapintoyourbeer.com. It lists the same ingredients for Budweiser and Bud Light: Water, barley malt, rice, yeast and hops. The company, which also makes Beck’s, Busch and Michelob beers, said it will list the ingredients for all of its other brands online “in the coming days.” It’s the first time Anheuser-Busch has detailed the ingredients of its beers.

 

MillerCoors posted the ingredients of Miller Lite, Coors Light and six other brands on its Facebook page. Most are made from water, barley malt, corn, yeast and hops, the company said.

 

“We also value transparency and are happy to comply with the request for additional information,” MillerCoors said in a statement. The company says that consumers can call to ask what ingredients are in their beer, and it will also put more information online “in the days ahead.” Its other brands in the U.S. include Peroni and Redd’s Apple Ale.

 

Both companies said that they are not required to list ingredients, but are doing so voluntarily because customers want it.

 

The online petition, started Wednesday by Hari, now has more than 44,000 signatures.

 

Hari has become a powerful voice in the food industry. She is the same blogger who pushed sandwich chain Subway to remove an ingredient in its bread that’s also used in yoga mats. Subway has since removed that ingredient.

 

She chose to petition beer makers because her husband drinks beer and she wants to be able to see what she is buying.

 

Representatives from Anheuser-Busch invited Hari and her family to visit its brewery in St. Louis and see how its beers are made. Hari said she is working with the company to figure out a time to visit.

 

Anheuser-Busch is part of the world’s largest brewer, Belgium-based Anheuser-Busch InBev. MillerCoors is a joint venture owned by London-based SABMiller PLC and Denver-based Molson Coors Brewing Co.

Source: http://money.msn.com/

The nation’s two biggest beer makers are getting cold water thrown on their long-held policies of not disclosing all of the ingredients in their brews.

 

An online petition to change that — asking Anheuser-Busch and Miller Coors to post their beer product ingredients online — is being spearheaded by influential food blogger and nutritional activist Vani Hari, creator of FoodBabe.com.

 

At issue: It’s the Treasury Department — not the Food and Drug Administration — that regulates beer. So the beer giants are not required to post ingredients on their labels or on their websites. Hari says even though the law doesn’t require it, consumers have a right to know what’s in the beer they drink. And she wants the beer giants to post it on their websites.

 

“We know more about what’s in a bottle of Windex and Coca-Cola than we about one of the world’s most popular drinks, beer,” says Hari.

 

Among the ingredients Hari has discovered in some beers sold by the big beer makers: Prolyene Glycol, which is commonly used in airplane de-icing liquids, but used by some beermakers to control the head on their beers. Also, something called Isinglass, which comes from fish swim bladders, is used to make beer more clear. Some use high-fructose corn syrup, artificial colors and stabilizers that are linked to intestinal inflammation, she says.

 

Hari says she’s not asking beer makers to change their formulas — or their labels. “I’m not asking for government involvement,” she says. “I’m asking for voluntary disclosure on their websites.”

 

Miller, in a statement sent to USA TODAY, says it’s getting there. “MillerCoors led all alcohol beverage companies with a voluntary nutritional labeling panel earlier this year starting with our Miller64 brand. We value transparency and we will strongly consider the request for putting more ingredient information online,” said the statement from spokesman Pete Marino.

 

But Hari rejects that. “Nutritional labeling is distinctly different than ingredient disclosure, and it is not enough transparency for consumers to avoid additives like the corn syrup they use in many of their beers,” she says.

 

A-B, in a statement, says that its beers are made “to the highest standards of quality and consistency, (and) use pure, fresh, natural ingredients.” It says its beer ingredients meet all standards for food safety set by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau and the U.S. Food & Drug Administration. And it lists information about nutrition and ingredients at its global consumer information website, www.tapintoyourbeer.com.

 

The action comes at a time when consumers are increasingly demanding more information about what’s in their products. Just last week, Panera announced plans to remove all artificial additives from its food menu by the end of 2016. Petitions by Hari are no small matter for food and beverage makers. One of her previous petitions coaxed an embarrassed Subway to agree to remove a chemical from its sandwich breads that’s commonly used in yoga mats and shoe rubber.

 

Hari’s previous petitions targeting not only Subway, but also Kraft and Chipotle, have garnered more than 500,000 signatures, she says. Because consumers — particularly tech-savvy Millennials — are so concerned about food ingredients, the big food and beverage makers are increasingly worried about consumer backlash from such petitions going viral.

 

Signatures on Hari’s petition will be sent via e-mail to the CEOs of Anheuser-Busch and Miller Coors.

 

“It’s shocking that these companies don’t disclose their ingredients,” says Hari. “But it’s even more shocking that millions of us drink these beers without knowing what’s actually in them.”

Source: http://www.usatoday.com/