Budweiser is a German language adjective and German surname describing something or someone from the city of Budweis, which was located until 1918 in the Bohemian part of the Austrian Empire. Since 1919 it has been called České Budějovice, first as part of Czechoslovakia, and since 1993 as part of the Czech Republic.
Budweiser beer naming dispute
Since the 19th century, Budweiser (like Pilsener from Pilsen (Plzeň)) became a synonym for a style of beer. This led in 1907 to the "Budweiser trademark dispute" between beer companies owning or claiming trademarks rights:[1] [2]
- Budweiser Bier Bürgerbräu, founded 1795 by German-speaking citizens of Budweis, was exporting Budweiser Bier to America since 1875. The company was expropriated by the communists in 1945 and changed names, but after the fall of communism reacquired old naming rights in the 1990s
- Budweiser (Anheuser-Busch), from Anheuser-Busch in the United States, has been marketed since the 1870s as "Budweiser" in United States and Canada
- Budweiser Budvar, a brewery founded in 1895 mainly by Czech-speaking citizens of Budweis (České Budějovice)
Anheuser-Busch cites prior registration of the trademark in the US and battles for the right to use it worldwide in many legal disputes against the Europe-based companies in several countries.[2] The Europeans wish to maintain or regain their right to market their beer under their traditional trademark. Bürgerbräu has marketed its beer as Budweiser Bier since 1802, Budvar has marketed its product this way since 1895. They claim that Budweiser is not a generic name, but connected to the original city, just as the pilsener style comes from the town of Pilsen.
The existence of several beers with similar names has caused problems in some markets. A long-standing agreement between the American and the Czech breweries divided the rights to the name "Budweiser", so that the Anheuser-Busch product is marketed as "Bud" (in France and elsewhere) and "Anheuser-Busch B" (Germany)[2], where the beer brewed in the original city retains the rights to the name[1]. The United Kingdom is one of the few places where both the American company and Budvar sold under the name Budweiser. In the 1990s the American company tried to force the Czech company to stop using the name Budweiser. After tasting both beers officially in court the judge dismissed the case saying that the American company need not fear that anyone would confuse the Czech product with theirs.citation needed
Anheuser-Busch has made offers to buy out the Czech brewing company Budvar in order to secure more rights to the name "Budweiser", but such offers have been refused.citation needed
Budweiser Budvar in the UK and Germany
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American Budweiser, marked "Lone star state Texas"
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Bud and Budweiser in a beer shelf in Turkey
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See also
References
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