Local Alberta breweries Elite
Brewing (visited, love the carbon fibre bar) and Bow River
Brewing have been on the receiving end of a cease and desist letter from the City of
Calgary over a beer label for Fort Calgary ISA (a “richly hopped
lighter bodied India session ale”).
The complaint by the City related to the unauthorized use of
“FORT CALGARY”, which is an official mark owned by the
City.
But wait, isn’t “FORT CALGARY” also an
historical landmark and a place name?
From reading our other articles on geographical
locations as trademarks, you might wonder how this
works. You might say “Hang on… if a
trademark is based on a geographic name, and a
trademarks examiner decides that the geographic name is the same as
the actual place of origin of the products, won’t the
trademark be considered ‘clearly descriptive’ and thus
unregistrable as a trademark? Furthermore, if the geographic name
is NOT the same as the actual place of origin of the goods
