BrewDog is being taken to court over claims it stole a beer name from a small Edinburgh-based brewer.
Jump Ship Brewery has taken the North-east firm to the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court in London in an effort to stop the company from selling its Shore Leave ale, but the Ellon-brewer says it's "surprised" at the action after trying to "settle the matter amicably".
Jump Ship, a non-alcoholic beer specialist, launched a rhubarb and ginger pale ale under the same name last year, and a chuckleberry sour version in May this year.
However, in July this year, BrewDog launched can designs of its Shore Leave alcohol with the tagline "It's time to jump ship".
The multibillion pound company has also trademarked Shore Leave.
A spokesman for BrewDog said: "As the registered owner of the Shore Leave trademark in the UK, we are obviously surprised at this action, but also disappointed.
"Ms Mitchell might have challenged our trademark application months ago as is standard practice, but chose not to.
"We’ve sought to settle this matter amicably and offered a range of fantastic collab ideas which would have had a huge boost for Ms Mitchell’s brewery.
"We even agreed not to use the phrase “Jump Ship” in our advertising as a gesture of goodwill. We’d much rather work with the industry than against it.
"We regret Ms Mitchell has decided to take this action instead of working collaboratively with us to help her business grow.”
FTSE 100
The UK's flagship share index, the FTSE100, was down six-points at 7,489 shortly after opening this morning.
Meanwhile, Brent crude futures were down 0.62% at $81.81 a barrel this morning.
Companies reporting today
- Caledonia Investments - Half year results
- Cranswick - Half year results
- Nvidia - Q3 results
- Petershill Partners - Q3 trading statement
- Telecom Plus - Half year results
- Workspace Group - Half year results
- Worldwide Healthcare - Half year results