Moosehead Brewery keeps close eye on trademark infringement

Moosehead Breweries says it has to make sure that no one confuses its brand with a local Sudbury beer.

Stack's owner announced this week he is discontinuing his Angry Moose and Friendly Moose lines.

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He said Moosehead called him to say he was in danger of trademark infringement.

​Moosehead spokesman Andy Gauvin said the company is very active in making sure no one imitates their brand, and noted Stack's Angry Moose and Friendly Moose were just too similar to Moosehead.

Moosehead's president had a friendly talk with Stack's owner, Gauvin said.

“[He] asked them to desist in using the Moosehead name within an amount of time, understanding that they would probably have some packaging they would want to absorb.”

Moosehead has been around much longer than Stack, Gauvin continued. The Moosehead brand was registered back in the 1950s to protect the company from imitators.

Gauvin said Moosehead did not take a confrontational approach, “where it's lawyer-to-lawyer, right away.”

“We don't take that approach. It's not the first time we've had questions in regards to companies using our trademark or similar trademark.”

Now that Stack is phasing out its Angry Moose and Friendly Moose names, there's no need to involve the lawyers. Stack said it will announce the new names of the beers next month.