SOBA sticks it to The Man

I've been a member of the Society Of Beer Advocates (SOBA) for almost 2 years, and recently we've got into our first serious bit of campaigning. We became aware that DB Breweries, one of the Big Two breweries in New Zealand, had taken action against the Green Man craft brewery in Dunedin. Green Man's crime? Releasing a low-strength beer called Radler. DB sent a threatening letter pointing out that it owned the trademark for Radler and, after a short battle, Green Man acquiesced. They're only a small company and so couldn't afford to take on the big boys.

The issue is that Radler is a generic beer style. It's not very well known in New Zealand but is fairly common in Germany. A single brewery owning the trademark for a beer style is obviously nonsense. Just imagine if someone trademarked Pilsner, for example. To make matters worse, it turns out that DB have also trademarked Saison in New Zealand.

SOBA decided that this could not be allowed to happen, but it wasn't clear what we could do. A boycott of DB products was proposed, and SOBA is still encouraging people to avoid DB products (which shouldn't be all that painful as there are many many better beers available from craft breweries around New Zealand). SOBA secretary Greig McGill got some excellent publicity for the cause via an article in the Waikato Times, followed by a radio appearance on Radio Live and finally a TV appearance on 3 News·

This publicity led to well-known intellectual property (IP) lawyers James & Wells getting in touch with SOBA and offering to fight for the revocation of the Radler trademark on a pro bono basis. The campaign is now in full swing, via a press release and an excellent interview on TV3's Campbell Live show. We're confident we can win but all support is welcomed. We've had support from around the world, including a UK brewer who used to work for DB but is now supporting our cause.

This is not about beer geeks getting sniffy about a name. This is about allowing creativity and innovation to flourish amongst the community of small brewers. We don't mind if DB continues to brew and market their (technically out of style and pretty unpleasant) Monteiths Radler. Just give up the trademark and let Green Man and others show how it should be done.