BrewDog backs down over pub trademark row
The self-described ‘punk’ brewers threatened the Lone Wolf bar, now called the Wolf, with legal action because it shared its name with BrewDog’s vodka range.
But BrewDog founder James Watt performed a swift U-turn on Monday after facing a barrage of online criticism.
Watt tweeted: “Our lawyers got a bit trigger happy. We are happy for the Lone Wolf Bar in Birmingham to keep using the name.”
The Wolf team said the response had come too late as they had already spent money rebranding the pub.
Siblings Joshua and Sallie McFadyen only opened the Birmingham pub in January, but registered the company as Lone Wolf Pubs in 2015 while looking for properties.
Watt later tweeted: “Earlier today we contacted Lone Wolf bar and said we would not only cover all costs, but invited them up to to make their own gin with us.”
The episode has proved embarrassing for BrewDog, which prides itself on its anti-corporate ‘punk’ ethos.
Last year the company fought a legal battle with the estate of Elvis Presley over the naming of its Elvis Juice Beer. Watt and BrewDog co-founder Martin Dickie even changed their names to Elvis in a deed poll in a mockery of the ‘petty pen pushers’ they claimed were behind the copyright action.
