Beer Trademark Dispute_Red Racer VS Red Rocket

Precedent: 10-10118-RBC

Bear Republic Brewing Co.
Founded in 2995, Cloverdale, California.  They are brewing Race 5 and Red Rocket beer.  The brand names are more popular than manufacturer’s name. 


Excerpt from the court documents

Central City Brewing Co.Central City is a beer pub located in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada.  Central City is brewing various beers including Red Racer and founded in 2003.

Excerpt from the court documents

Plaintiff: Bear Republic Brewing Co.
Defendant: Central City Brewing Co.

Plaintiff’s statement: Defendant’s trademarks and trade dress ‘Red Racer’ infringed our trade name and shape of ‘Racer 5,’ and ‘Red Rocket’ which leads to confusion for customers.

Defendant’s statement: When we were developing the trade name and shape of ‘Red Racer,’ we have not noticed plaintiff’s trademark and it is totally different from ours.   

Main Contents

The plaintiff who is brewing homemade beer applied for a provisional injunction for trademark and trade dress infringement to the defendant, but it has turned down latert.  The court mentioned that each of both companies’ trademarks has discrimination.  Also the court stated that their trade dresses are totally different because plaintiff is selling its product in the bottle, and the defendant is selling its product in the can. 


Excerpt from the court documents

The plaintiff stated that the whole image and the font of the trademarks ‘Racer 5,’ and ‘Red Racer’ are very similar each other which are motivated from the cartoon book style in 1950’s and 60’s.  
However, the defendant stated that plaintiff’s racer 5 image has check pattern that reminds the carton ‘Speed Racer,’ which is different from defendant’s trademark image that transmit the impression if 1940’s pin-up girl. 

The defendant also explained that plaintiff’s label exposed manufacturer’s mark, but defendant’s product contains the image of red maple leaf which signifies Canada. The defendant also reminded that the red maple leaf expresses that the product is imported from Canada.

However, the plaintiff refuted that their trade names are similar because those words are combination of two words started with the alphabet ‘R’ and has the meaning of movement and speed.

Defendant also defended that plaintiff’s trade image is more like cartoon-like rocket image which is different from defendant’s pin-up girl style trade image.  Defendant also claimed that the word ‘Red’ generally used in many beer companies. 

Conclusion
Even though defendant’s trademark caused temporary confusion for some customers, but it didn’t cause actual confusion for many customers.  The plaintiff lost the dispute because it could not prove the defendant caused actual confusion.

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