Anheuser-Busch Incorporated v. The Stroh Brewery Company

In this case, a major beer brewer, Anheuser-Busch, invokes federal jurisdiction seeking trademark protection for its brand name “LA”. I would deny protection because its claim to the mark “LA” reflects a preemptive and anticompetitive intent to capture the emerging market for low alcoholic content beer by converting the initials of “low alcohol” (l.a.) into a trademark.

Counsel for Anheuser-Busch commented that this case is not complex. I agree. An artificial complexity arises only when pragmatic and flexible interpretations of the trademark laws become enmeshed in the rigid categorization of…