As a result of the booming craft beer market, both microbreweries as well as large multinational brewing companies are encountering atypical difficulties in trademarking their products. Due to the market crowding that “has been exacerbated by immense growth in microbreweries in recent years” some brewers have turned to other markets. In order “to appeal to a broader market” micro, and macro-brewers both have begun to add non-alcoholic drinks to their portfolio, in addition to “numerous spiked versions of traditionally virgin drinks.” This cross-marketing has caused attorneys who work for alcoholic producers to “do a lot more leg work than they did a decade ago to make sure their products don’t infringe anyone else’s trademarks.” Because consumers could be easily mistake an adult beverage for one that “looks remarkably like a non-alcoholic beverage” intellectual property attorneys who work in the alcohol industry have “a new layer of possible confusion” to work around.
See Joseph Marks, Blurring Lines Between Beer and Soda Cause Trademark Confusion, Attorneys Say, 92 BNA’s Pat., Trademark, & Copyright J. 1353, 1354 (2016).