A Scottish brewery has won a legal battle with Elvis Presley’s estate over the name of one of their beers.
Aberdeenshire-based company BrewDog launched their bestselling grapefruit and blood orange Brewdog Elvis Juice IPA in 2015 but were contacted by the late singer’s estate demanding they change the name of the beverage.
Now, after a three-year battle the firm has overturned a ruling banning them from using the name and and order to pay Presley’s estate £1,500 in costs has been scrapped.
James Watt (pictured) and Martin Dickie, who were at school together in Aberdeenshire, started BrewDog in 2007 with a bank loan and a grant from the Prince’s Trust because they couldn’t find anything they wanted to drink
Aberdeenshire-based company BrewDog launched their bestselling grapefruit and blood orange Brewdog Elvis Juice IPA in 2015
The Elvis estate said the application overlapped with their registered trade mark ‘Elvis’ and people could mistakenly believe that the beer was endorsed by them
BrewDog founders James Watt and Martin Dickie even changed their names by deed poll to Elvis in a bid to prove the name was not exclusive.
They insisted their beer had no connection to the singer and suggested there ought to be ‘a little less conversation and more time enjoying our beer’.
The Elvis estate said the application overlapped with their registered trade mark ‘Elvis’ and people could mistakenly believe that the beer was endorsed by them.
The UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO), which rules on trade mark disputes, found in favour of the estate last June but Brewdog appealed the decision.
Although Elvis Presley died in 1977, his name and likeness have been trademarked by Elvis Presley Enterprises (EPE), which earns millions of dollars every year through a licensing programme that grants the right to manufacture and sell Elvis Presley merchandise worldwide.
The ruling means BrewDog will no longer have to change the name or apply to the Elvis estate for official permission to use it.
In evidence given to the original hearing, BrewDog’s finance director Neil Simpson said turnover for its Elvis Juice product was £1.9 million in 2016.
After a three-year battle the firm has overturned a ruling banning them from using the name
The company, which is based in Ellon, Aberdeenshire, has been valued at up to £1billion and Dickie (left) and Watt (right) were awarded MBEs in 2016
BrewDog said it was famous in its own right and had ‘no need to ride on the coat tails of others.’
Watt and Dickie, who were at school together in Aberdeenshire, started BrewDog in 2007 with a bank loan and a grant from the Prince’s Trust because they couldn’t find anything they wanted to drink.
The company, which is based in Ellon, Aberdeenshire, has been valued at up to £1billion and the pair were awarded MBEs in 2016.
BrewDog currently has 47 bars and bottle shops and exports to 55 countries.
With the help of 50,000 craft beer crusaders, its innovative business model, Equity For Punks, has also taken more money through crowdfunding than any other business on record.