DID SUMMERFEST MISS CHANCE TO CHALLENGE TRADEMARK?

Special to the Readers of Milwaukeeworld

By Michael Horne

And The Milwaukee World Hound Dog Team
Trademark Inspection Unit

[Updated Tuesday, April 28th, 2009]
Our friends at Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. (Est. 1980) are flooding the saloons of this city and the nation with Summerfest Lager, a seasonal offering whose name was first registered as a trademark with the US Patent and Trade office in 2000 after using it in commerce since 1986.

You'd think there might have been a challenge to the use of the name by our own Summerfest, "The World's Largest Music Festival," (Est.1968), which registered the name in 1971 as a service mark, and is generally thought to be protective of it.

HAVE A SUMMERFEST WINE COOLER
Milwaukee World Festival*, operators of Summerfest, applied for a trademark for a Summerfest Wine Cooler in 1994, a quest that was later abandoned. [A New York wine company also had previously applied to use the name for a wine cooler.]

You'd figure if the folks at Summerfest considered owning a wine named after themselves, they might want to leave the door open to own a beer. Anyway, too late for that, it seems. Or is it?

[Update: Frank Nicotera, Summerfest Chief Administrative Officer and General Counsel says his organization's service mark covers a circumscribed field of human endeavor limited to the operation of a music festival. Alcoholic beverage trademarks are beyond the scope of the organization's interest, he adds.
Nicotera says his staff reviews trademark applications on a monthly basis screening for those organizations that may attempt to register -- or use without registration -- the Summerfest service mark. Usually they desist after a notification from his office, he says.
Nicoterra, who has held the job since 2006, says he is not certain why Summerfest applied for the wine cooler trademark, but added the effort was abandoned. It is possible management learned its trademark protection did not extend to such items as intoxicating beverages. --Ed.]

An outfit in Georgia applied in 1989 for use of Summerfest as a name for an outdoor festival there. The plan was abandoned the next year.
* No relation to Milwaukeeworld.com--Ed.