https://www.techdirt.com/2024/01/12/lds-church-bullies-brewery-out-of-beer-brand-referencing-biblical-bees/

"A Salt Lake brewery is discontinuing its Deseret IPA over a trademark-related complaint from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Bewilder Brewing Co. announced in a newsletter on Monday that it will “phase out” Deseret IPA and replace it with a new product."

“Unfortunately a large tax exempt Utah-based entity wasn’t pleased with our use of the word Deseret,” the newsletter states. “We have been asked to drop our Trademark and discontinue the brand.”



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/15/2024 05:57PM by bradley.

Well, I kinda get their point...

People would be buying, or subscribing to the Deseret News expecting it to be all about the beer!!

Tres confusing, n'cest pas?

No, it's BS. There's Deseret Roofing, Deseret Photography, Deseret Plumbing, Deseret landscaping, etc. etc.
We have Polygamy Porter Beer, Five wives Vodka, St. Provo girl etc. Why crack down on Deseret IPA? They should start a GoFund Me page and fight LDS Inc.

No more St Provo Girl due to a lawsuit. Too similar to St. Pauli Girl.

stillanon Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> No, it's BS. There's Deseret Roofing, Deseret
> Photography, Deseret Plumbing, Deseret
> landscaping, etc. etc.
> We have Polygamy Porter Beer, Five wives Vodka,
> St. Provo girl etc. Why crack down on Deseret IPA?
> They should start a GoFund Me page and fight LDS
> Inc.

Whether or not it's BS depends on if the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has placed a copyright or trademark on the word "deseret". If so and Deseret IPA wasn't willing to pay the church some of its profits or otherwise conform to what ChurchCo wanted, then goodbye Deseret IPA. This is copyright and trademark law in today's United States and one needs to be careful.

A beer thread got my attention PDQ. Thanks for the diversion!

At the end of the article it says:

"And so that is the end of the story. Until, perhaps, the LDS Church sees the light and decides to stop playing the IP bully."

The end of the universe will occur before the bully gives up.

Re 'deseret': I always think of it as a place and routinely forget it's about bees. I'm the hopeless convert who didn't really study the BoM in depth (understatement - and so my penance was that after I jumped into the font I was miserable ever after - until I fled the scene at last).

Do the Mormon leaders think they own the bees?

Just wondering.

What if you were a company that makes honey. Could you not call your product a name that included that term?

Can anyone have such a wide-ranging copyright? Just wondering.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/15/2024 06:01PM by Nightingale.

Birds and bees are prominent in Mormonism.

Nightingale wrote in part:

"Can anyone have such a wide-ranging copyright? Just wondering."

The answer in the United States is yes and no. According to the business law class I was required to take many moons ago (back in the late 1980s) as part of the MBA I was seeking at the time, I was told that You can copyright or trademark almost anything but with a catch. If the word or phrase you copyrighted became widely used by the general public, then the copyright you were granted would be rescinded.

The example given to illustrate the point was Xerox. IBM, which had developed the Xerox copier, had sought and gotten a copyright on the word Xerox. However, IBM's attempts to promote the product turned out to be too successful as members of the general public began to say the word Xerox when they meant any copier and created the verb Xeroxed when they had used a Xerox (or any copier) to copy something. The result was that IBM no longer has a copyright or trademark on the name Xerox.

> Can anyone have such a
> wide-ranging copyright?

Gladys could, but she doesn't flaunt it.

Yes, she's totally the owner/operator of salt.

Good grief. How touchy and controlling.

I suspect the church debated long and hard about how to stop the musical Book of Mormon when it was being developed. They probably realized the best policy was to laugh it off because Broadway and South Park would have caused even more damage, relentlessly damaging the Mormon reputation.

They have no problem going after smaller targets that can't outspend Mormons.

Who knew Jesus needed to protect logos, bees, words like "Deseret" and anything else Mormon corporate Jesus could trademark. Eye roll.

Had ANYONE trade-marked or service-marked 'deseret' previously to this incident?

I doubt it. There used to be things like Deseret cleaners, credit unions and whatever all over the place.

The beer is brewed with honey, so I don't know how the church can be upset with them using bees as symbols. The church doesn't own bees, for cripes sake.

Maybe the church is afraid people will think they have also bought their way into the beer business like they buy everything else!

Back, just before Brigham Young
died of being killed by one of
his wives, there was a Deseret
Whores, down by the train station.

There were times they could have
convened a quorum there...

Railway crew members spend lots of time away from home, those guys need love too (or a reasonable facsimile)...

just sayin'

I wonder if they would have done the same thing if there was a Deseret Busy Bee Dirty Soda business.

It was probably a case of the small brewery could not afford to contest a lawsuit. Sheer bullying by LDS, Inc.

Can they just rename it Pay Lay Ale?

https://abbeybrewinginc.com/the-best-pay-lay-ale-a-celebration-of-fine-brewing/

There is a pay lay ale.

I want to raise my hands and repeat three times “Oh god, get this beer in my mouth.”

Running out of things to try and control.