July 5, 2001 -- From the mountainous terrain of the British Columbia interior comes word of a trademark battle shaping up between Moosehead Breweries of St. John, New Brunswick, and Mt. Begbie Brewing of Revelstoke, B.C.

Since May 15, says Mt. Begbie co-owner Tracy Larson, Moosehead has been issuing warnings to Mt. Begbie that their Alpine Amber Ale is infringing on one of the Maritime brewery's trademarks. "And," she adds, "The letters have been getting nastier and nastier."

A long-time Moosehead brand is Alpine Lager. According to the brewery's website dedicated to the brand (www.alpine.com), the beer was named at a time when war was looming in Europe and "the usual choices of German and Austrian names might be a bad idea." Thus, the decision was made to choose a name and imagery "based on a Swiss locale." (For those who have never visited Canada's Maritime provinces, it bears noting that the terrain there is hardly mountainous.)

Alpine Amber Ale is a considerably younger brand, as Mt. Begbie Brewing itself is only six years old. It has never been sold outside of British Columbia, as Alpine Lager has never appeared outside of the Maritime provinces. The slogan used to sell the latter brand is "You gotta live here to get it."

Although a final decision has yet to be made, Larson says that the fight will likely prove too costly for Mt. Begbie to pursue and so she expects that they will end up having to change their ale's name. She hastens to add, however, that the advice they have received thus far would seem to indicate that their case is quite strong.

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