As an old skool west coaster, UTC has a natural empathy with the underdog trying to make it in this big hostile corporate world of ours. So he was fair scunnered to learn how a wee distillery in Stirling was getting it tight from some big Australian mob over… the name of an apple.
Turns out Stirling Distillery recently launched a new Pink Lady gin. Fairly innocuous, you would think. The name stems from a famous Stirling legend, The Pink Lady, a young noblewoman who died defending Stirling castle in the siege of 1304. The distillery then received a letter from Apple and Pear Australia Ltd (APAL) threatening legal action against them.
Why? Well, APAL apparently owns the Pink Lady trademark and takes a dim view of people using the term without a licence (and, presumably, paying a hefty fee). While hardly an expert on trademark law, UTC did know that registered trademarks tend to be issued for use within a specific trading sector – in this case, ‘apples’. Or maybe the wider-ranging ‘fruit’. Which begs the question, why does a big Australian company feel threatened by a gin made by a tiny Scottish distillery?
As these things tend to work out, the distillery chose to rename and rebrand the gin (at significant cost) rather than face a lengthy legal battle. The auld boy has vowed never to eat another Pink Lady apple as long as he lives. Which might not be very long, considering the amount of Pink Lady gin he drinks.
