BrewDog caught up in second copyright row
Earlier this week the craft beer brand backed down after forcing the Lone Wolf pub in Birmingham to change its name, blaming its ‘trigger happy’ lawyers.
However, The Guardian has reported that in December BrewDog contacted music promoter Tony Green over his plans to open a Leeds bar called Draft Punk.
BrewDog has brewed its Punk IPA beer since 2007, and also raised money under its ‘Equity for Punks’ scheme.
“They can’t own punk, that’s the whole point,” Green told The Guardian. “It’s inherited, it’s British culture.”
However, BrewDog insisted it had been right to defend its company.
"The other party tried to register ‘Draft Punk’ as a trademark, but we own the ‘Punk’ trademark for beer, so naturally we objected as that is one of our trademarks," the brewer said in a statement.
"If we did not object they could have registered Punk and sold it to AB-InBev the next day, and then we could have been driven out of business."
Green said he has since abandoned his plans to open a bar, despite spending around £4,000 on PR advice and creating a logo.
However, BrewDog refused to apologise for defending its brand.
"Any company, anywhere in the world, is always going to protect the trademark of its flagship product," BrewDog said.
"If you do not protect your trademarks then you risk forfeiting them entirely. People criticising us for defending our trademark is like people criticising us for not letting someone walk into our offices and steal our computers."
