University Of Idaho Sends Cease And Desist Over Vandal Beer Business Name

Trademark

from the beer-me! dept

There is something about the beer and liquor industries that seems to attract unfortunate trademark disputes. The craft beer industry in particular has been recently plagued with these disputes, in large part due to the growth that industry has undergone coupled with once-small craft breweries going corporate and retaining aggressive legal teams. Many of the disputes are intra-industry, with one brewery attacking another over a perceived trademark issue.

But that’s not always the case. Occasionally we also see a trademark dispute needlessly erupt from a source outside the beer industry. That is most certainly the case with the University of Idaho, which has the mascot name “The Vandals”, for some reason sending a cease and desist notice to an alumnus looking to open his Vandal Beer company.

The University of Idaho sent a letter this week to Vandal Beer owner R. Austin Nielsen asking him to stop using the Vandal Beer name, citing trademark infringement, according to Jodi Walker, UI director of communications.

A story on the new brew brand ran in both the Moscow-Pullman Daily News and Lewiston Tribune a few days ago.

Nielsen said last week he plans on releasing his first Vandal Beer, gold pale ale, in August in the Moscow area, as well as Lewiston and Coeur d’Alene. He said it will be produced in the Coeur d’Alene area starting in July.

Now, Nielsen graduated from UI and says the idea for his brewery business came when he was still enrolled at the school. UI, meanwhile, says that Nielson approached the school with the business idea initially in what was to be a partnership with the school. That partnership never materialized, obviously, and Nielson went on to start his Vandal Beer business anyway. The school, apparently, believes using the Vandal name alone is trademark infringement and will cause confusion.

Little in that claim makes any sense, however, as the branding for the school and brewery look nothing alike, and it’s safe to say that the trademarks for which the school has registered the term “vandal”, of which there are many, do not include selling alcohol. That puts Nielson’s business in a market in which the University of Idaho is not playing: beer sales. Not to mention the proactive steps Nielsen has taken to avoid such confusion.

His website, which is still active at www.vandal.beer, states Vandal Beer is not affiliated with the university.

Nielsen said he will donate 10 percent of all Vandal Beer sales to UI scholarships and a fund he plans to start aimed at helping nonprofits, businesses and individuals who fall in line with Vandal Beer’s mission of making a positive impact in local communities.

Layer on top of that the simple fact that beer-slinging and education are in wildly different marketplaces and you have to wonder what exactly UI thinks its claim for trademark infringement would be based on? The only potential issue I could see is if the school managed to produce members of the local population who were confused into thinking there was some affiliation there. If it doesn’t have that evidence, it’s not as though the school gets to lock up the word “Vandal” for its own use within its own geographic area.

On the other hand, a startup versus a university is an example of why trademark bullying tends to work.

Filed Under: r. austin nielsen, trademark, vandals
Companies: university of idaho, vandal beer