Drink Harpoon instead

[ron_newman]

Sam Adams beer company issues a cease-and-desist order against Sam Adams, candidate for mayor of Portland, Oregon.

Read much more about it here.

Comments

[thetathx1138]

Eh, I can get better beer nearby anyway. Besides, one suspects this is more the result of an overzealous junior partner than it is a corporate stance.

[ron_newman]

the letter came from a Boston Beer Co. employee -- Helen Bornemann, who gives her title as "Intellectual Property Manager"

[thetathx1138]

Well, either way, it's silly and the company will no doubt reverse its stance as it deals with the public embarassment.

[kpht]

it already says it was sort of a misunderstanding and they didn't realize it was a real guy, they thought someone was ripping off their "sam adams for president" marketing scheme.

[teawithfrodo]

oh good I'm not the only one who caught that.

[eeyorecol]

AP now has a story on "Brewer in Dispute With Real Sam Adams" online.

Clicking on SamAdamsForMayor.com and MayorSamAdams.com give you more links to information, which then include an image of the cease and desist letter than went to the radio station (and lots of blog links). I think that the Intellectual Property Manager who sent the letter simply saw that a radio station bought the domains and figured it was for a promotion, and didn't bother to do any more research before sending out the letter.

[thespian]

yeah. I'm also thinking, from the sheer amount of publicity she just brought them as a bit of a bully, she won't be managing intellectual property much longer (oh, the irony)

[eeyorecol]

The whole "we'll think about letting them keep it only for the duration of the election" thing is crap, too. If you have a website with a copyrighted name and you aren't going to cause any confusion or squatting, the law says that you can keep the URL. Boston Brewing Co is going to lose on this one...

[ron_newman]

What is that symbol at the end of each of your links, and why does a popup appear whenever I put my mouse over the link?

[gordynate]

Drink Harpoon instead? Now that's a solution I can get behind!

[forever_dreams]

I like to see the old late famous Sam Adams rise from the dead and sue the beer company for using his name.