Does Leff resemble Leffe?

Sometimes it seems as though drink brands are responsible for three-quarters of all disputes about trademark infringement (clothing brands take care of the rest).

Well, it’s true that alcohol and conflict often go hand-in-hand, but that doesn’t explain everything. Could this phenomena be due to the dizzying number of different drink brands on the market, or is it because so many drink brands cultivate the type of strong identity that infringers so love to imitate? Maybe people aren’t thinking clearly when they come up with new drink brands – or might the real reason be that it is possible to make huge sums of money by infringing this type of trademark?

The latter, making money from infringement, is not always a factor, though it may well play a role in the numerous cases involving Champagne. There seems not to have been any question of malicious intent, however, in a recent conflict involving craft beer.

A thousand beers

Philippe Le Saux, a pensioner from Brittany, had always dreamt of brewing up to 1,000 bottles of beer a month using artisanal methods. His ambition was simply to brew and sell his own beer from his shed in Brittany – or Armorica, as it was known in the time of Asterix, a comparison that would soon be made in this case.

Philippe Le Saux named his brewery Brasserie Artisanal du Leff, after the river that flows through his native village of Lanleff. But by doing so, this micro-brewer from a tiny village drew down the wrath of the largest brewery group in the world, the Brazilian-Belgian company, AB InBev.

InBev is the current owner of the beer brand Leffe. Leffe itself started out small in the year 1240, in Notre-Dame de Leffe, an abbey which was home to a community of Norbertine canons. Nowadays, Leffe produces around 1.5 million hectolitres of beer each year in France alone.

Rocambolesque

‘C'est un peu rocambolesque tout ça’, ‘it’s all a bit peculiar’, said the pensioner. Maybe it is, but on the other hand, what was InBev supposed to do?

InBev is understandably vigilant when it comes to safeguarding its trademark. The Breton brewer applied to register Leff as a brand in the French Trademark Register, an action soon noticed by InBev’s alert brand consultants. InBev then filed an opposition to the registration of the microbrewer’s brand – and you’ve got to admit that Leff does sound a lot like Leffe.

This is how to protect a trademark. If you allow the trademark register and the market to become saturated with brands of beer that bear a strong resemblance to yours, in no time your brand will become ‘diluted’, as this phenomenon is known in trademark law. And if this happens, your brand becomes worthless. So it’s nothing personal, just business.

If you are also interested in the effective safeguarding of your trademark, why don’t you contact one of our brand consultants, free of obligation? We will be happy to help you with both registration and protection.