All quiet in the great Budweiser beer war
The dispute over the Budweiser trademark seems to have quieted down as everybody is waiting for the auditors to release their findings on the workings of state-owned Budweiser-Budvar. The report, scheduled for release in June, will ostensibly show if Budvar’s management has been following the rules – and a negative result could give some politicians a greater say over the Czech brewery. The brewery is owned by the Czech Ministry of Agriculture.
The audit is conducted by the controversial HZ Consult (see several reports in BRAUWELT International). One of the most controversial aspects of the audit, says Czech market observer Richard Hunt, is that it is "led" by a lawyer, Tomas Jindra.
Mr Jindra had been appointed by the Minister for Agriculture, Bendl to Budvar’s supervisory board at the end of last year. This constitutes a clear conflict of interest in the audit world. He cannot both lead the audit on behalf of the Ministry, and sit on the supervisory board of the company being audited.
When this scandal hit the roof, the Czech Prime Minister took action. He announced that the Budvar issue had become overly politicised, and sought to address this by removing Mr Jindra and several other ODS politico types from the Budvar board.
Since then, the media have gone quiet on Budvar, pending the report.
In the months since AB-InBev acquired Budejovicky Mestansky Pivovary (BMP), spun off from Samson late last year, the three parties in the Budweiser trademark dispute – AB-InBev, Budweiser Budvar, and the Samson Brewery, which is also located in Budweis – have taken different approaches to their PR strategies.
The acquisition of BMP from private equity company Harvestor Limited gave AB-InBev the trademarks and access to the water source of the brewery, with the physical production assets remaining behind with Harvestor as the Samson Pivovary.
All combative, Budweiser-Budvar has launched a print media campaign featuring a neo-medieval armoured knight. “The campaign is called: Saying NO makes us what we are,” wrote Petr Samec, press spokesman of Budweiser-Budvar. “The advertising campaign focuses on several of the most important values of our brand – thus the trademark dispute is not the dominant topic.”
We at BRAUWELT International beg to differ: The trademark issue is certainly referred to in this negative campaign, as the four main headlines are a clear attempt to position Budvar as the champion of local (Czech) beer:
The ads say:
1. We say NO to moving the production away from Ceske Budejovice
2. We say NO to replacing the original ingredients
3. We say NO to selling our own name
4. We say NO to reducing the 90-day maturing period
Samson Brewery, the physical remnants of the BMP, has rebranded its beer in the local market under the Samson name. The previous “Budweiser Bier” tagline and the geographic indication mark have vanished from the bottles and marketing materials. “We don’t think it is so important,” said Michal Donath, media spokesman for Harvestor. “We believe that people are more interested in the taste of the beer than its geographic origin.”
Of course, someone was interested in getting the name, otherwise Harvestor would not have sold the trademarks to AB-InBev for an undisclosed sum.
Mr Samec says it is business as usual for Budejovicekye Budvar. “The acquisition of Budejovicky Mestansky Pivovar has no influence either on our trademarks or our business activities. The battle strategy of Budvar is clear: If a producer wants to use the Protected Geographical Indication logo, all raw materials, the production process and the place of production must be in accordance with the PGI specs."
“It’s not possible to produce ‘Budweiser Bier’ outside of the defined area surrounding the Ceske Budejovice city centre,” stated Mr Samec.
If this were the case, then AB-InBev’s reason for acquiring BMP’s “Budweiser Bier” brand would have been to bury this label once and for all.
We shall see.
Knights will be upon us this summer. There will be the much anticipated Batman movie “The Dark Knight rises” and … well, Budweiser Budvar’s. At the Czech brewer they seem to have no qualms about borrowing heavily from another artist. Their knight alludes to Giuseppe Arcimboldo, an Italian Renaissance painter at the Prague court, who is best known for creating imaginative portrait heads made entirely of such objects as fruits and vegetables. Spot also the figure of Michelangelo’s David on the knight’s left shoulder (he who beat Goliath). The ad says: “We say NO to selling our own name. As a result of our resolute NO to selling trademarks, Budweiser Budvar has established itself as a courageous battler not afraid of defying a much stronger opponent. Only then can its good name be preserved for future generations as well.”
