?Though the battle lines are still drawn the field of battle has been rather quiet between the Black IPA vs. Cascadian Dark Ale debate so leave it to a little known Vancouver, BC brewery to stir controversy by staking their flag firmly into "Cascadia" as their own trademark. Nevermind that Cascadia refers to a region that compromises Oregon, Washington and parts of Canada and Idaho or the fact that breweries have now been using the term for years. The resulting legal battle could be much more than an argument over style definitions but crosses borders into trademark laws and even asks the question: can beer like so many other famous alcoholic beverages become specifically and legally associated with a specific region?
Steamworks Brewing a popular brewpub in Vancouver says they own the term "Cascadia" they trademarked it in 1996 after establishing a brand around their "Cascadia Cream Ale" nevermind that the beer has not even been produced in years. Chuck a Canadian beer blogger broke the news on his blog Barley Mowat that Steamworks recently began quietly contacting BC breweries warning them of their trademark infringement. A recent spat of legal wars in the brewing industry over trademarks like the Full Sail vs Grey Sail dispute and current trouble brewing between Lagunitas and Knee Deep Brewing has left beer fans with a bad taste in their mouth. Defending a trademark is a necessary step in business that many do not understand, to keep from getting ripped off and not losing ones trademark you must defend it. Where it goes sour is when the power granted from said trademark is wielded with an unjust hand in situations like the one in which Willamette Brewing, now renamed Oakshire Brewing was forced to change their name because of a winery using the name "Willamette" nevermind the fact that it's named after the river. Speaking of Oakshire, they were the first brewery to package a beer officially branded on the label as a Cascadian Dark Ale so maybe they will chime in on this subject.
You could say the term "Cascadian Dark Ale" has always smacked of provincialism laying favorites with the so-called "Cascadian" region as the styles debatable creators. Others may argue that it's not fair for such a small area to claim an emerging style to which I say why not, there are styles for "Flanders" Red, "Dortmunder" Lager, Czech Pilsners and the like. However one brewery claiming lordship over all things "Cascadia" smacks of the ultimate elitist regionalism their could be. Chuck Mowat over at the Barley Mowat blog riled up enough Canadians to get angry about the issue that Steamworks owner Eli Gershkovitch finally issued a response over the weekend to quell the masses, but to me what he had to say made it even worse:
"the concept of Cascadia was pretty novel in 1995, that?s why we chose it! I guess if a whole group of people want to use a name we came up with in 1995 because we were farsighted about the concept of Cascadia we should be flattered."
Now let's be clear, Steamworks Brewing did not come up with the concept of Cascadia. Maybe they were the first to use the term on a beer but they certainly did not come up with the concept. In fact the beer/brand in question has apparently not been brewed for years and was never packaged. However if you go to the breweries website now they seem to have renamed their Nirvana Brown Ale simply "Cascadia" a feeble grab to keep the name."We thought our Cascadia should not just be a name but a full brand...we built up a brand image around our idealized image of Cascadia...we hired a designer, used the imagery in artwork, printed hundreds of thousands of coasters and created a brand which fitted in really well in our brewpub," writes Eli Gershkovitch in his written response to the controversy. All I can say to that is where is this imagery? The artwork I see shows a hot air balloon lifting up the top of a clocktower into the sky and is far more reminiscent of Victorian culture than anything fitting of Cascadia.
Eli Gershkovitch has offered to license the term to breweries he sees fit for a fair price "to preserve the integrity of the name "Cascadia" for true craft breweries not for large multinational breweries to homogenize or lay claim to the name. Our plan is to license the trademark to other true B.C. craft breweries for a very nominal fee ($1 perhaps) which is legally needed to protect the trademark for all." Of course this sounds generous but also absurdly unrealistic, as Chuck Mowat says in his blog he would happily cut Steamworks a check for the $56 needed to license the term to all the breweries in BC. More likely is Steamworks is going to play hardball with the term as they apparently already have with sources telling me Vancouver BC brewer Parallel 49 had to change their Christmas Cascadian Dark Ale to Christmas Dark Ale and Phillips Brewing, arguably the original "Cascadian" beer settling out of court to preserve their "Skookum Cascadian Brown Ale" a beer that has been brewed for years and is even packaged in bottles with the name "Cascadian".
All this bullshit makes me wonder where Americans stand on this issue. Steamworks has the Canadian trademark but not in the United States, but what if a CDA is distributed to Canada just like the recently released Gigantic Brewing: Black Friday Cascadian Dark Ale has been? We have seen this happen with all alcoholic beverages as they get bigger, they get regulated further into where they are made and what processes are involved to a point where most cannot legally produce a style of alcohol if not in the right place. Take for instance American Whiskey restricted by Title 27 of the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations or Tequila which is an exclusive product of Mexico or Champagne which must come from the Champagne region of France. Imagine a future where Cascadian Dark Ale was a product exclusively of Vancouver BC or hopefully of states in the actual Cascades. Would this be a good thing or bad?
Regardless it is complete arrogance on the part of Steamworks that they could own the term of an entire regions independence movement that ironically called for "a dedication to open source, dynamic and associative governing models, an expansion of civil liberties, freedoms, digital privacy"
Source: http://www.newschoolbeer.com/2012/11/who-owns-cascadian-dark-ale.html
revenge revenge once upon a time once upon a time adam shulman adam shulman dexter
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