Luxembourg - The Czech Republic's Budejovicky Budvar brewery has lost a lawsuit against its American competitor, Anheuser-Busch, over the use of the "Bud" brand name in Europe.
On January 22, a European Union court rejected a complaint by Budvar aimed to prevent the US company from registering the Bud brand name as a protected trademark in Europe.
Budvar argued in its appeal that the registration of the Bud brand name constitutes a violation of unfair competition laws, because the Bud brand name was similar to Budvar's own trademarks registered in Austria - Budweiser, Budweiser Budvar and Bud. According to Budvar, Anheuser-Busch's Bud brand name is also harming the Czech brewery's interests in France, Italy and Portugal.
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However, the General Court of the European Union ruled otherwise, stating that Budvar failed to prove that its sales of its own Bud in France and Austria were substantial.
"The documents filed by the Budejovicky Budvar company in order to prove the actual use of the 'Bud' name in Austria show very low sales in terms of both volume and revenues," the judges said, adding that the sales of Bud realized outside Vienna were insignificant. The same situation was also in the French market.
"Under such conditions, the General Court has dismissed the actions brought by the Budejovicky Budvar company to the full extent," said the court.
Anheuser-Busch, owned by the InBev brewery group, said that the court's verdict affirmed its right to register the "Bud" brand name in all of the European Union. "This verdict is essential in that it will broaden the already significantly strong global protection of our 'Bud' and 'Budweiser' brand names. Now we will basically have almost worldwide protection of these brands," said the company in a statement.
Currently, there are more than one hundred ongoing lawsuits between InBev and Budejovicky Budvar. The latter has registered the Budweiser and Bud brand names in more than 60 countries.
