Obtaining registered trade mark protection for your brand is a very important step for any business to think about when creating a product. Intrepid Brewing Company, a recently established micro-brewery based in the Hope Valley, found this out following a trade mark dispute with a large national brewer, which Alex Newman from our Leeds-based Intellectual Property team helped resolve.
After the trade mark issue which brought us and Intrepid together, we decided to team up in a unique collaboration to produce a special edition ale called ‘Trade Mark IPA’.
The limited edition ale is a twist on the traditional India Pale Ale (IPA) and was brewed by Intrepid and a team of willing volunteers from Irwin Mitchell during a brew-day at Intrepid in August 2015.
The beer was launched in September 2015 to coincide with the first anniversary of Intrepid’s beer being sold in pubs, and to also celebrate the successful resolution of the trade mark dispute.
‘Trade Mark IPA’ was chosen as the name of the beer, to help bring the value of strong IPR to the attention of the growing micro-brewery industry, whilst the decision to produce an IPA was made following a beer theory and tasting session involving some of our business clients and contacts.
Ben McIntyre from Intrepid said: “The support we have received from Irwin Mitchell has been critical. The trade mark dispute could have caused us very serious problems, but Alex and the team fought our corner with real tenacity. This allowed us to focus on what we are really passionate about, making fearlessly tasteful craft beer for you all to enjoy!”
Ben added: “When we set out at the start of this process, both Irwin Mitchell and Intrepid wanted this to be a true collaboration. This started with their involvement in deciding which type of beer to make and continued with them helping out for a full day in the brewery. We are delighted with how the beer tastes and it has proved very popular in both local pubs and bottle shops.”
Alex Newman from Irwin Mitchell said: “We were delighted to secure a successful resolution of the trade mark dispute for Intrepid. Most of my working hours are spent advising on IPR, and I’m no stranger to IPA. Combining the two to collaborate on ‘Trade Mark IPA’, helping celebrate Intrepid’s anniversary and draw attention to the value of IPR seemed like a perfect use of my time.”
To find out more about this unique collaboration, please follow us on Twitter using the hash tag #IMCraftBeer.
