Posted on 12/10/2002 2:21:35 PM PST by Willie Green
For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.
BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — The Hungarian patent office ruled against a Czech brewery's right to use the ``Bud'' trademark in Hungary, but said that the company could continue using the ``Budweiser'' name there, the head of the office's international department said Tuesday.
The decision was part of long-standing battle over the rights to the Budweiser and related names between U.S. brewer Anheuser-Busch Inc. and state-owned Czech rival Budejovicky Budvar.
The Hungarian Patent Office decided in Anheuser-Busch's favor in the cases of the ``Bud'' and ``Budvar'' names and related variants.
``We found no reason to say that these names had any relation to a geographical place so we ruled that there was no appellation of origin in these cases,'' said Endre Millisits, who headed the patent office's three-member tribunal in the case.
``However, we did decide that the `Budweiser' name does have an appellation of origin, because it is related to the German name of Ceske Budejovice, the town in the Czech Republic where the beer is produced,'' Millisits said.
The U.S. and the Czech companies have claimed rights to Budweiser and related names in a series of court battles over more than a decade.
The denial of Budejovicky Budvar's right to use the ``Bud'' trademark in Hungary ``is another significant win for Anheuser-Busch,'' Stephen J. Burrows, the company's president and chief executive, said in a statement in London.
Daniel Jirovec, the head of marketing for Budejovicky Budvar, said the firm could not comment on the decision because it had not been informed about it.
St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch claims that the German immigrants who founded the company in 1876 brought the name with them from their homeland where it was already in use. The Czech brewer says that the name was already well known in its home town of Ceske Budejovice in the Middle Ages. The Czech brewery was founded in 1895.
The DuBois Brewing Company started when Frank Hahne Sr., a native from Neiderfeleris, Germany, came here around 1895 or 1897.
By the year 1906 the brewery had four products on the market, DuBois Wurzburger, Hahne's Export Pilsner, DuBois Porter and the famous DuBois Budweiser.
When the Anheuser-Busch Company heard that the DuBois Company was using the name "Budweiser," they filed a lawsuit against the brewery. For over sixty years the DuBois Brewing Company defended its right to use the name "Budweiser."Early in the year of 1951, a district court in Pittsburgh, PA., gave DuBois the right to use the name of Budweiser. In September of 1951, A-B appealed the case to a higher court and once again the court ruled in favor of the brewery.
In 1932 Hahne Sr. passed away and the company was passed down to his only son, Frank Jr. It wasn't until 1967 when Hahne Jr. sold the brewery to the Pittsburgh Brewing Company. Five years later it was closed forever and the "Budweiser" name was settled with Anheuser-Busch.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.