Row over name leaves DB in froth

The trademarking stoush between a multinational brewery and a bunch of Kiwi beer enthusiasts over the use of the beer term "radler" is starting to froth.

DB Breweries, which is now wholly owned by Singapore-based Asia Pacific Breweries, last week signalled its intention to fight a legal application filed in May by the Society of Beer Advocates (Soba) to invalidate its trade-marking of radler, in what is shaping as a David and Goliath beer battle.

Soba's strategy would be to establish that New Zealanders, particularly brewers, were aware of the generic nature of the term before that date.

"We may soon require the assistance of all brewers in New Zealand in our quest to show that DB are either malicious in registering a trademark they knew was a generic brewing term, or incompetent in not knowing it was, when every other brewer worth their salt did," Mr McGill said.

"One outcome means they lose the trademark, the other means they lose huge amounts of credibility by being a brewer without a clue about beer."

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