Brewery Law ❘ A Beer Law Blog from a Beer Lawyer

Legal commentary on alcoholic beverage law

BeerBlotter.com: The Big Battle Over Initiative 1100 & 1105

***This post was originally published on BeerBlotter.com, a seattle beer blog, to which I regularly offer commentary.*** Well, its getting even more interesting. The battle over Washington State Initiatives 1100 & 1105 is heating up, more and more, each and every day. In case you don’t know, Initiative 1100 was introduced back in June 2010 [...]

TTB and USDA Work Together to Review “Organic” in Labels and Advertising

The Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) released a new Memorandum of Understanding pertaining to the use of the term “Organic” on alcoholic beverage labels. Of course, this news is of utter importance to brewers, especially those in the NW who have focused on brewing organically. We learned about [...]

Black Raven Brewing Loses Trademark Battle Against Wine Producer

This is somewhat of a travesty – but truly the way that trademark law works. Yesterday, June 21, 2010, Black Raven Brewing Co. lost a trademark battle over its “Black Raven Brewing Company” name and mark design.  The story was first reported over at Seattle Beer News. The challenge was brought by Franciscan Vineyards, who [...]

Modernize Washington: Seattle Public Interest Group Takes Aim at Washington Liquor Monopoly

The recent initiative to privatize liquor sales in the State of Washington is picking up steam. Though this is not about beer, there are many in the beer industry who are probably interested in a major change in alcoholic beverage regulation in our fine state. Initiative 1100 is the proposed legislation. The group behind this [...]

Beer Formulas: Collaboration Between Stone, Firestone and 21st Amendment Raises Eyebrows

Well this might not be a topic for dispute, but Stone Brewing‘s latest triangular collaboration has quite a label. The beer – El Camino (Un) Real Black Ale. The new beer is a collaboration between Stone Brewing, 21st Amendment and Firestone Walker, three of California’s finest brewers. From a quick look at the ingredients, this [...]

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