Tag Archive for: Beer

Molson Coors beer production disrupted by huge computer hack


This really bytes!

The making of Miller and Coors beer has been disrupted by a massive computer hack.

Molson Coors — the Chicago-based company behind the popular cold ones — revealed the vexing “cybersecurity incident” in a regulatory filing Thursday.

The company also makes and distributes Molson, Blue Moon, Carling, Killian’s Irish Red, Foster, Pilsner Urquell and Peroni, among other brands.

Molson Coors is “working around the clock to get its systems back up as quickly as possible,” the paperwork said of the hack, which has delayed some production and shipments of the brands.

“We have engaged a leading forensic IT firm to assist our investigation into the incident,” top spokesman Adam Collins told the Associated Press.

“We will continue to communicate with our business partners with updates,” he said.

The beer break-in is the latest in a series of high-profile hacks.

Coors beers
Molson Coors revealed the vexing “cybersecurity incident” in a regulatory filing Thursday.
Getty Images

Earlier this month, hackers tapped into 150,000 live security-camera feeds, and thousands of small businesses and government offices were compromised by a coding flaw in Microsoft’s email program.

The White House is continuing to investigate Russia’s alleged SolarWinds hack of government agencies, and other hacks this year targeted the Pfizer vaccine, and attempted to poison the water supply of the Florida city of Oldsmar.

With Post wires

Source…

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Say It With Me Now, Australia: Beer And Wine Are Not The Same Thing, Not Even For Trademarks

While I’ve done a fair share of posts here on the topic of trademarks and the alcohol industries, one of the most frustrating sub-types for those posts is the sort where the dispute exists between one wine maker and one brewery. There appears to be some misconception that alcohol is one big market or industry for the purposes of trademark. While it is true that far too few countries explicitly recognize that wine and beer are different markets in their trademark laws, most of the countries do still have customer confusion as a key test for infringement. And, I feel it’s safe to say, the general public can tell the difference between beer and wine, and typically know enough about each’s crafters to tell their branding apart.

Now the general public in Australia is facing this test in a way, with a large liquor chain trying to oppose the trademark application for a craft beer gift service over a wine trademark it holds, but doesn’t seem to be using.

The Beer Drop was officially launched in October 2019, with founder Evan Reitano filing to register its trademark in June 2019.

In January this year Coles opposed the trademark, saying it was “contrary to law” as it had substantially identical or deceptively similar trademarks – in this case, ‘Wine Drop’ which is currently not in use, and whose web page redirects to First Choice.

“Our Wine Drop subscription service was a popular service for our First Choice customers and the www.winedrop.com.au website currently redirects customers to the First Choice Liquor webpage,” a Coles representative told Brews News.

This appears to be as close to an admission that a trademark is no longer in use as one could hope for. “Was” a popular service. The website redirects to a different branded page. And that’s all before we get to the simple fact that wine and beer are not the same thing. Add to that that the word “drop” isn’t particularly source identifying and you begin to wonder how there’s a case to be made by Coles at all. And then we can add to all of that my suspicion that the Australian public can probably discern between a big retailer and a startup craft beer gift service. With that, this all begins to look silly.

It looks as though Beer Drop will be focusing on Coles’ failure to use the trademark, however, rather than beer and wine being distinct markets.

Reitano undertook a small business course before launching The Beer Drop and said it was invaluable to his IP experience so far, but what really stung was the references to ‘bad faith’”, he said.

“I read over it and I laughed it off at first, I had never heard of the Wine Drop, the first thing I did was jump onto Google. Being a Coles Liquor business you’d think it would be in the top one or two search hits which it wasn’t, and I can’t find any trace of it. It’s strange because they’ve said in their opposition that they’ve built a reputation with that brand, it feels like they expected me to read it and say shit, it’s Coles Liquor, let’s back off.”

Part of the reason for that may have been that Reitano worked for another Coles liquor brand in his past. Some folks have claimed that, since he worked for a Coles brand, he must have known about the Wine Drop trademark. That is obviously silly. Expecting a line employee to know about every trademark a company is no longer using is insane. And it’s also entirely besides the point because, again, this all ultimately boils down to the potential for customer confusion and here there is none.

Techdirt.

Despite Its Problems, More Consumers Should Behave Like Beer Drinkers To Keep Trademark At Bay

Here’s a fun thing I never thought I’d find myself saying: the world should take a cue and be more like beer drinkers. Specifically, that is, when it comes to how the beer drinking community reacts to trademark law. Any review of this site’s coverage of trademark law as it pertains to the alcohol and beer industries will show that there is a burgeoning problem in this industry, where explosive growth in craft brewing has resulted in a likewise explosive growth in trademark disputes. What’s somewhat unique in the industry, however, is the sense of community both between brewers and drinkers and, more importantly, between brewers themselves. This bond has muted what would otherwise be disastrous intellectual property squabbles.

And part of that is indeed fueled by the consumers themselves. An example of this can be found in a New Zealand brewer’s attempt to trademark a common term in the industry, only to have the public outcry force it to pull back its application.

Brewing giant Lion says it has withdrawn its trademark application for the word “dank”. The company caused a stir in the craft beer world last week with the move, which it said was in relation to a product it was developing. It said the trademark application was aimed at stopping others from trying to copy its IP, not from using the term altogether.

“We recognise the application caused concern about the restrictions this would put on others, and as such we have chosen to withdraw the applications,” the company said.

It’s important to remind yourself that this sort of industry language-grab happens in other industries roughly all the freaking time. The permission culture mentality has so invaded the corporate world so as to cause them to seek any and all advantages, no matter how abusive they are or how counter to the purpose of trademark law they might be. In the craft brewing space, the common industry good is taken more seriously, such that attempts like Lion’s, wherein the company attempted to legally lock up a word used extensively by competitors, is met with backlash from both the industry and the public. That’s the kind of pressure that causes a course correction.

Craft beer fans were up in arms when Lion’s trademark application was posted on the Beertown Facebook page last week.

“Dank, dankier, dankiest. Lion is attempting to trademark DANK as a beer descriptor. Anyone think that’s a bit rank?”, the Beertown post said.

The founder of brewery 8 Wired, Soren Eriksen, who recently launched a Superdank beer brand, said he had been sceptical. Eriksen said he was concerned that Lion might get more restrictive about the use of the term in the future if the application had been successful.

When everyone from the industry to the fans of that industry are focused more on the good of that industry than purely commercial gamesmanship, you can manage to stave off the worst effects of trademark laws.

In other world, be more like beer drinkers, world.

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