Abnormal faces legal battle against 3 Floyds

Rancho Bernardo’s Abnormal Beer (and Wine) Co. may be forced to change their name entirely, after recent legal action taken by Indiana’s 3 Floyds Brewing over that brewery’s “IT’S NOT NORMAL” tagline/trademark. This recent development came as a shock to Abnormal staff, having posted one month ago that the matter was settled:

 

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We’d like to say a very big Thank You to Nick Floyd @3FloydsBrewing for personally handling a legal matter for us. . Last year we were notified that the trademark for our brand, Abnormal, was being protested by the attorneys at 3 Floyds Brewing on the grounds that our brand name, Abnormal, creates confusion with consumers with their brand. For those familiar with our two brands, you understand why we were left scratching our heads with that assertion… . After being at two beer festivals in two different countries with them, one of our owners had the pleasure to get to chat with Nick Floyd and fill him in on the details. He immediately reassured us he would make sure we were squared away and explained that their legal firm is only there to combat “Big Beer” that threatens their business not little guys like us. He even took a photo with us in traditional 3 Floyds fashion 🙂 . Thank you again Nick for keeping the spirit of craft beer alive. Money & time is much better spent on crafting great beer for everyone, not on attorney fees. We look forward to seeing you guys at the next beer festival! Cheers!

A post shared by ABNORMAL BEER CO. 🍻 (@abnormalbeerco) on Aug 14, 2018 at 5:10pm PDT

This afternoon, Abnormal posted the following on Instagram; additional comment by company president and CEO Matt DeLoach follows. 3 Floyds did not immediately return a request for comment.

 

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We previously shared that Nick Floyd @3floydsbrewing would be taking care of working things out with us for the trademark we filed for our name, Abnormal. Unfortunately, that is no longer the case. Their lawyer has informed us our only option is for us to withdraw our filing for not only our beer name, but our winery as well; because it causes confusion with their brand to consumers 🤔 . Abnormal is a newcomer to this industry compared to some of the great breweries who have been around since the 90’s @Karlstraussbeer, @Stonebrewing, @PizzaPortbrewingco, @Whitelabsyeast, @BallastPointbrewing, @CoronadoBrewing and 3 Floyds, just to name a few. We pay tribute to those who have blazed the trail for us by respecting the craft, helping contribute what we can, and doing our best to further those crafts for everyone to enjoy. That is our mission & purpose in this industry, to make a contribution every day . Our attorneys have told us that this fight could reach into 6 figures. You can imagine our frustration when faced with this predicament; money that should be going toward producing awesome products, supporting local causes or other productive means, are now having to be paid to attorneys on both sides of this. We reinvest every dollar back into our company, so these legal issues directly take away from our customers and our employees. Although we’re sure 3 Floyds has much more money than us, we imagine their customers would rather see those funds go into their products and new location, rather than paying their attorney to sue a small San Diego brewery & winery . We want to be clear, we are not a threat and we do not want a legal battle over something as silly as this; the only people who win are the lawyers. We’ve been at multiple festivals in different countries together and we all know there is no confusion between the 3 Floyds and Abnormal brands . As fans of 3 Floyds Brewery, we have saved a beer for you Nick, should you decide to change your mind and reach out to work this out with us. Let’s be friends, not enemies; that’s what the spirit of craft is about, a spirit you yourself helped cultivate. There shouldn’t be anything sharing a beer can’t fix

A post shared by ABNORMAL BEER CO. 🍻 (@abnormalbeerco) on Sep 14, 2018 at 5:32pm PDT

“We hope that our message came across as non confrontational and that we just want to continue to exist together in this awesome industry.

“The Abnormal trademark actually existed prior with no issues with 3 Floyds, which is why we’ve been so stumped as to why they’re fighting us so much on this. A company out of Singapore I believe owned the Abnormal trademark prior, which eventually expired as they were no longer using it. We applied for it right after and have been met with opposition from 3 Floyds. This opposition then spread to involve our winery mark as well, which is confusing since they do not produce any wine.

“We were at the CPH festival last year with them and had a lot of fun. We actually got a chance to talk to Nick at the Boston festival last year to fill him on what his attorney had filed against us, he seemed really cool about it and told my business partner Elvin that he would handle it and that their attorneys were there to protect them from big beer, and not fight us little guys. We received an email from their attorney after our thank you post to Nick and the communication has with him has ceased entirely. The only option we’ve been given from their attorney is to abandon our trademark.

“In the end, we just want to continue to grow this awesome industry together, not cause drama and unnecessary legal fees on either end of this.”