Week 2 - Post 1: Beer Battles

        A little over two weeks ago, Anheuser-Busch - the Belgian brewing company and manufacturer of the popular Budweiser brand beer - won a court case in the European Union over a trademark dispute with a Czech brewing company called Budejovicky Budvar.  The dispute, which was over the right to use the "Bud" trademark, was settled by the General Court of the European Union in favor of Anheuser-Busch because they claimed, "that Budvar failed to show it used the word 'Bud' for its products to a sufficient level before A-B's application for a trademark in 1996."  In other words, although Budvar had in fact been the first to use the "Bud" trademark, Anheuser-Busch was able to successfully lay claim to the trademark due to filing their application in a timely manner.
       A court case like the one between Anheuser-Busch and Budvar seems ridiculous considering that Budvar was acknowledged as the originator of the "Bud" trademark in the first place.  In fact, I would venture to say that Anheuser-Busch likely won the dispute due to their vast legal and financial resources, compared to that of Budvar.  It's hard to imagine how many times something similar to this case must have occurred - where a small company that originally used some patentable idea or trademark lost their rights to that item because they lacked the resources to fight off a larger and wealthier firm.  I may be incorrect in assuming that Anheuser-Busch won their court case simply by "outspending" Budvar on legal fees etc., however I feel that cases such as this are commonplace, considering the enormous influence that businesses have over politics through their lobbying efforts.  Regardless, Anheuser-Busch now has practically universal protection for their "Bud" trademark throughout the world according to their company spokesperson.  The following is a link to the article:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/chi-busch-wins-long-battle-over-bud-trademark-in-europe-20130122,0,7915133.story


I'd be very interested to see what everyone else thinks.