Mysan.de reports that the Budweiser roadshow has made it way to Austria. A Salzburg court has ruled in favour of Anheuser-Busch in a dispute between the American company and Budejovicky Budvar, the brewers of Czech Budweiser. The Czech brewers had applied to have BUD registered as a geographical indication but the court refused the application because BUD does not correspond to a place name. A similar decision was reached last year in Vienna. Furthermore, BUD was found not to infringe the Czech brewer’s Budweiser Budvar," "Budweiser Budbrau" and "Budweiser" trade marks.
Ceske Budejovice…not commonly known as Bud
The IPKat thinks this is a perfectly sensible decision. If words which do not correspond to geographical places can be registered then what limits are there on the scope of GIs?
More buds here
What really happens to all that beer here and here
