From Headwaters to Bearwaters? Waynesville brewer forced to change name after trademark tussle

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Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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Headwaters Brewing Company of Waynesville is now Bearwaters (???) Brewing Company after a tussle with a Pennsylvania brewer who had trademarked a similar name.

New breweries and new businesses take note. From the Smoky Mountain News:

Victory Brewing Company out of Pennsylvania makes a beer called Headwaters Pale Ale, and while Headwaters Brewery had its name first, Victory Brewing beat them to the trademark punch.

Headwaters was faced with two options: limit their own distribution to North Carolina or change their name within six months to avoid a legal conflict.

Kevin Sandefur, one of Headwater’s three owners, didn’t relish the painstaking process of changing their name. There were billboards, T-shirts, pint glasses, hats — not to mention cardboard bar coasters — that will have to be redone, along with a new logo and new web address. But worse, the microbrewery had made a name for itself and its beer, and Sandefur would now have to redouble his marketing to introduce a new name into craft beer circles.

But, with plans for a brewery expansion this spring and hopes that the company will be distributing beyond state lines by year’s end, he bit the bullet.

“We decided to clean the slate and get a new name,” Sandefur said.

They hired a marketing consultant out of Knoxville, who came up with the idea of switching out just two letters in the name to keep it similar.

Starting this week, HeadWaters becomes BearWaters Brewing Company.

Read the full article here.

Bearwaters?

Headwaters/Bearwaters on Facebook

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Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

  • 1

2 Comments

  1. The Blunder Years January 24, 2013

    They actually paid someone to come up with a name that terrible? Yikes.

    A dick move by Victory, for sure, but no one to blame but themselves for failing to clear one of the most basic hurdles of establishing a new business, especially in an industry that focuses so heavily on marketing/branding already…

    Reply
  2. Doug Sahm January 24, 2013

    “They hired a marketing consultant out of Knoxville, who came up with the idea of switching out just two letters in the name to keep it similar.”

    And the Easiest Job in America Award goes to…

    Reply

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