You may recall my blog about the thinning of the possible names for craft beer. Well, it seems there is another way that a craft brewery can find itself on the wrong side of a trademark dispute. A brewery in Auburn, California, Knee Deep Brewing Company, has a "Breaking Bad"-themed IPA (Indian Pale Ale for those not hip to brew designations). Knee Deep's Breaking Bud IPA earned a bronze at the Great American Beer Festival in 2016. Alas, one of Breaking Bad's production companies, Sony Pictures Television ("Sony") was not as enamored with Knee Deep's concoction and sued the brewery for trademark infringement and trademark dilution.
According to the statement released by Knee Deep's CEO, the lawsuit came as a complete surprise because Sony representatives had expressed appreciation for the "call out" to the show in 2015 or so. He also went on to explain that Knee Deep and Sony explored the possibility of a more formal partnership between the brew and the show, but ultimately decided not to do so. He also makes clear that the name of the IPA was a joke and any dispute should have been raised by Sony in 2015, not via lawsuit in 2018.
If what Knee Deep's CEO claims is true, that may mean that Sony's lawsuit just got harder. It certainly would lend credence to the argument that Sony acquiesced to Knee Deep's use of the name, and therefore, would be estopped from asserting its claims now. Stay tuned.
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