RHODE ISLAND. BEER. TRADEMARKS.

Last week’s grand opening of the Tilted Barn Brewery in Exeter got me to thinking.  The craft beer industry is exploding in Rhode Island.  Branding and identification are very important to these companies.  They spend a lot of time coming up with catchy and clever names for their companies and their brews.  But are these companies doing enough to protect their brands?  Probably not.

Trademarks are the most common form of intellectual property we encounter in our everyday lives.  Everywhere we look, on our toothpaste and breakfast cereal in the morning, on the store signs and sides of buildings as we drive to work or school, on television and the Internet, and in the beer and wine and soda we drink, we see hundreds of trademarks a day.  Trademarks influence consumers, help products or services stand out, and create a brand identity for a business

At last count, there are at least 14 breweries and brew-restaurants in operation in Rhode Island, with others rumored to be in the planning stages. Most of these breweries have multiple offerings available to the public.  Yet, according to the records of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, there are only 22 registered trademarks or pending applications for beer owned by 10 companies in Rhode Island.  Eleven (11) of these are owned by either Narragansett or Foolproof.  This leaves 11 registrations owned by 8 other businesses.  Let’s take a quick look.

NARRAGANSETT

Narragansett’s repurchase by local investors in the 1990’s heralded a new era of brewing in Rhode Island.   Narragansett has registered 6 of its marks, some of which have been in use since the original Narragansett Brewery days, and has one pending application:

• MADE ON HONOR, SOLD ON MERIT
• OFFICIAL BEER OF THE CLAM
• LOVECRAFT
• HI-NEIGHBOR!
• ‘GANSETT
• 

FOOLPROOF

Foolproof seems to be taking some active steps to protect itself.  Foolproof has 4 registrations or pending applications.  The company has registered FOOLPROOF, the name of the company, and its jester crown logo.  

They have followed up with registrations for the mainstay product “RAINCLOUD” and for a newer product “LA FERME URBAINE (LFU).”  But the company let pending applications for its BACKYAHD and BARSTOOL brands lapse.  What’s up with that?

OTHERS

Other RI brewers who have been using the registration system to protect their trademark rights include:

Farmer Willie
	GINGER WITH SOUL
Proclamation Ale	PROCLAMATION ALE
Providence Brewing Company	PROVIDENCE BREWING COMPANY
	THE GREAT PROVIDENCE BREWING COMPANY
Brutopia Brewery	BRUTOPIA BREWERY
Grey Sail Brewing Company	GREY SAIL
Trinity Beer Company
Newport Harbor Corp.	CASTLE HILL WINDWARD WEISS
J.H. Restaurants

Clearly, the breweries are not taking advantage of the opportunities the legal system provides to protect the marks and company names against others who adopt confusingly similar names or brands.

One reason may be the cost.  A federal application can cost $500- 1000 or more if the application encounters problems.  Many of these businesses are bootstrapping their way off the ground with sales of product and merchandise items funding the next batches.  There is no spare cash for trademark registrations.  But what the businesses are not taking into account is that the cost of trademark registration is modest when compared to the costs of advertising promotion and marketing over the years.  

Aside from the cost, there are sometimes other reasons why companies do not apply to register their trademarks:

• The product or brand is seasonal, and does not have a long enough shelf life to be worth protecting.
• The mark is too descriptive, or refers to a geographic place (OCEAN STATE or PROVIDENCE) that is difficult to protect.  But note that these marks can be registered in many cases.
• The mark is similar to another mark that is already registered, and the company does not want to call attention to itself by filing an application

It is important to register trademarks as soon as possible.  Later users may be able to register the mark, and keep the registration.  The modest cost of obtaining a U.S. registration is far, far less than the amounts a business would spend litigating over the rights later.