Dawn Ellmore - Australian company applies for a trade mark

1. Australian company applies for a trade
mark, for the colour of beer
Following in the footsteps of the likes of Cadbury (owned by Mondelez
International) and oil giant BP, a much smaller Australia-based company has
filed a trade mark application for a colour.
What makes this application stand out from the crowd is, rather than the
colour of packaging (like Cadbury’s ongoing battle) or logos (like BP’s
attempted trade mark registration of a specific shade of green) this application
is for the colour of beer.

2. Brewer triestotrade mark beer colour
The craft brewer attempting to trade mark the colour of its beer is based in
Melbourne, Australia. East9th Brewing recently filed its application to trade
mark the Pantone colour.
Co-founder Benjamin Cairns said: “We hope this will revolutionise the way we
think about beer. We havelodged all the paperwork and trademarked the
actual Pantone colour.”
Challenging corporate ownership
Mr Cairns says thatthe trade mark application is an “ironic wink” aimed at
challenging the monopoly of corporateownership. Thelatest productfrom the
brewery is Doss Blockos The Colour of Beer.
The company says that this brew is the firstbeer that is truly the colour of
beer, thanks to their trade mark application. As for how it tastes, it’s
apparently “generous on the tropical notes” without being too bitter.
What is the colour of beer?
Identifying the precise ‘colour of beer’ sounds difficult to us, if not impossible!
The brewery worked with a street art company called Ironlak, also based in
Australia, to decide the true colour of beer.
In Australia, the Ironlak spray paintcan is used by many street artists, and its
notoriety in this area encouraged the brewers to collaborate with them on
their beer. East 9th Brewing has been established for eight years and is run by
Mr Cairns, along with marketers Stephen wools and Josh Lefers.
The company sees itself as “one of the elder statesmen in the independent
brewer’s world”. TheDoss Blockos was their original brand, which has been
added to with Fog City, Lick Pier, FutureMemoirs Of A Root Beer and their
most recent launch, Doss Blockos HempireHemp Beer.

3. Turning over $10 million every year, East9th Brewing is clearly a market
leader, with 5,000 distribution points around Australia, including Dan
Murphy’s, Coles, Woolworths and Metcash.
Using the trade mark as a publicity stunt
As the trade mark application has yet to be processed, itdoes look like this
could be a marketing stunt for the brand. However, they say: “Who knows
what this might mean for the beer industry? MaybeHeineken, VB or XXX Gold
will have to tweak the colour of their liquid to avoid any trade mark
infringements. They might own the taps pouring the beer, but we own the
colour of beer.”
A representative for the IndependentBrewers Association, Chris McNamara,
has said that he hopes East 9th Brewing’s trademark application isn’t serious.
He said: “Itwould certainly cut down on what we would see as the sharing
nature of our industry… Itdoes have implications for the restof the industry if
it was to get through.”
This may be one of the most colourfultrade mark applications we’veseen
recently, but it’s a good example of the range of projects trademark attorneys
can expect to work on this always interesting sector of law. For information on
vacancies in the IP law sector, talk to the team at Dawn Ellmore Recruitment.