Red Bull Files Trademark Suit Against Old Ox Brewery

Red Bull has filed an opposition with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office against trademark applications from Old Ox Brewery in Ashburn, Virginia.

The small craft brewery that opened in the northern Virginia suburb in late June 2014. It’s on track to produce about 4,000 kegs of beer by the end of the year and distributes only in a small portion of the state.

Red Bull contends the brewery’s use of ox is likely to cause customer confusion because an ox and a bull are both considered bovine animals and are virtually indistinguishable to most consumers. 

The brewery says the challenge is frivolous and jeopardizes its business.

This letter is from Old Ox owner Chris Burns:

Hey Red Bull –

You seem pretty cool. You sponsor snowboarders, adventure racers, rock climbers and motocross bikers. You launch people into space so that they can skydive back down to earth. That’s all really darn cool. For all I know, you’re reading this while strapping yourself into a Formula One racecar that is about to be lit on fire and jumped over a large chasm of some sort. How cool would that be? Feel free to give it a try.

Here’s the thing, though. You are being extremely uncool to us at Old Ox Brewery. We are a small startup brewery in Ashburn, Virginia. We’re family-run, we love beer, and we love our community. For reasons that we cannot understand, you have attempted to strong arm us into changing our identity for the last 10 months because you believe folks might mistake Old Ox beer for Red Bull energy drinks. We respectfully disagree. The only similarity between our two products is that they are both liquids. You make non-alcoholic (but very extreme) energy drinks. We make delicious (but laid-back) beer. Our consumers are looking for two distinctly different experiences from our respective products…."

This update from Old Ox on 2/13:

Hey All-

What a wild ride over the last couple of days! Thank you very much for all of your support. We’re overwhelmed by your response and we very much appreciate your efforts on our behalf. You have created a petition, started aFacebook group, and set the web ablaze with your awesome commentary.  We’re humbled and eternally grateful for this. It would seem Red Bull is also taking notice of your actions. While we at Old Ox have not heard a word from Red Bull since writing our peace offering on Sunday evening, some of you have. Yesterday’s response from Red Bull was:

“RED BULL HAS NOT SUED ANYONE. BRANDS, BIG AND SMALL, SEEK TO PROTECT THEIR TRADEMARKS EVERY DAY. ALL WE ARE ASKING FOR IS TO ALLOW THE ADMINISTRATIVE PROCESS AT THE US PATENT & TRADEMARK OFFICE TO RUN ITS COURSE AND WE REMAIN HOPEFUL THAT A FAIR SETTLEMENT CAN BE REACHED BY BOTH PARTIES.”

Red Bull’s response downplays the severity of their actions against us. Basically, they’re saying “relax, this is just normal business.” But this is not normal. The “administrative process” that they refer to is not like going to the DMV to renew your driver’s license.  Red Bull has asked the U.S. Government to restrict our rights. They have filed two petitions against our brand with the United States PTO. There are lawyers, motions, discovery proceedings, depositions, etc. These petitions may not have been filed in Federal District Court — but make no mistake — these are legal proceedings. All of which take financial and human resources, diverting our energy from producing great beer.

If this were technically a lawsuit, at least Old Ox Brewery would have some recourse in recouping legal fees against these frivolous claims. As it stands, however, there is no penalty for Red Bull’s filing frivolous trademark objections.

Red Bull states that they are “hopeful that a fair settlement can be reached by both parties”. There is a difference between hope and action. Red Bull has not responded to our letter. They have not taken a single step towards finding a “fair settlement” since we reached out to them. It would seem that what they really “hope” is for this whole thing to go away without having to make any course corrections. They’re hoping that their non-response is good enough to stop the public pressure, which forced them to issue a response in the first place.

Thank you everyone! Great Job! YOU have forced Red Bull to acknowledge this situation. Now we have to keep the pressure on in order to impact a meaningful change in their behavior