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The King of Beers By D R Harms SC 15 May 2019 Crooks and Beer So they all say China has no (or very little) respect for intellectual property. The cheerleader of that group complainants is of course the USA. But see what they did to the little old Czech Republic (formerly Czecho­Slovakia) in connection with their famous "Bud" tell another story. They appropriated the name Budweiser and claimed it as their own supported by their courts. The Europeans even joke about it: An American walks into an English pub and orders a Budweiser. Barman: Oh, you must be American. American: You can tell from my order and accent, huh? Barman: No, because you're the fattest f#ck I've ever seen. As they also drink a concoction called root beer there is little to add, the name Trump springs to mind. Ah and, I almost forgot, they have their own Word Champion Ship in some sports. But, all in all, they are a lovable crowd generating lots of IP litigation. History of "Budweiser" (Budweis) In Czech1 Budweiser Budvar (Czech: Budejovický Budvar; Czech pronunciation: ['bu??jovit?ski? 'budvar]; "Budvar from Budweis") is a brewery in the Czech city of Ceské Budejovice (German: Budweis), best known for its original Budweiser or Budweiser Budvar pale lager brewed using artesian water, Moravian barley and Saaz hops. Budweiser Budvar is the fourth largest beer producer in the Czech Republic and the second largest exporter of beer abroad. A separate brewery, Budweiser Bürgerbräu (Czech: Budejovický mestanský pivovar) was founded in 1795 by the city's German­speaking citizens and started brewing Budweiser Bier in 1802. Budweiser Bürgerbräu was acquired by Anheuser­Busch InBev in 2014 to aid its claim on the Budweiser trademark. Budweiser Budvar Brewery was incorporated in 1895 as the Czech Joint Stock Brewery when local Czech breweries in Ceské Budejovice, then part of Austria­Hungary, merged and started brewing Budweiser with new technology. With the German occupation of Czechoslovakia during World War II and its communist­rule during the Cold War, the brewery was unable to compete with the American Anheuser­Busch as production faltered. By 1948, all Czech breweries had been nationalized and during the communist government. The brewery reported in 2015 that it had grown by 226% since 1991 and that its total sell volume had increased by 39% in the last ten years. The history of Budweiser in the USA The Czech company began shipping its beer to the United States in 1875. A year after, Adolphus Busch, a German immigrant to the United States and a businessman, encountered the brewery's Budweiser often during his visit to Europe. Thus, he decided to name his own beer Budweiser and brew it according to the Bohemian process.2 In other words, as one would say, pure coincidence ­ 600 years later. In article "A Brief History About Budweiser"3 it is said that: The name Budweiser in America, advertised as the King of Beers, has been a mainstay in today's culture. Almost toted as a 'rock' in its industrial strength, but is it a stalworthy as claimed? It's always Lawyer Time in this little corner of beerland. Budweiser, the flagship beer of Anheuser­Busch and the best­selling brew in America, has been scrapping over the rights to its name for decades, and there's no sign of a letup anytime soon. The Budweiser saga began in 1876, when the E. Anheuser Brewing Association of St. Louis, Missouri, introduced Budweiser Lager Beer. Founded in 1860 by Eberhard Anheuser, the company was renamed the Anheuser­Busch Brewing Association in 1879, recognizing the contribution and leadership of then president Adolphus Busch. "Bud" was a hit. The decades flew by and Americans guzzled Budweiser by the barrelful (three million barrels per year by 1941, in fact). Americans continued to down Bud in massive quantities, and Budweiser became an American icon. The dispute Meanwhile, in Czechoslovakia, trouble was brewing. It seems that when Eberhard Anheuser named his beer Budweiser, he was paying homage to the beer makers of a Czech town called Ceske Budejovice, known in Anheuser's native Germany as "Budweis." According to the folks in Budweis, their local beer has been known as Budweiser for several hundred years. [if this dude was paying "homage" he would have given it away for free] In 1895 the Czech brewery Budejovicky Pivovar (mercifully known as Budvar) began producing its own brew, marketing it under the name Budweiser Budvar, and the legal fireworks soon began. In 1939, Anheuser­Busch and Budvar supposedly buried the trademark hatchet in the United States, giving AnheuserBusch the American rights to the name in exchange for Budvar's ownership of the name Budweiser in much of Europe. But as Anheuser­Busch expanded into and began to dominate international markets, skirmishing flared again. The Czechs even took offense at Budweiser's slogan "The King of Beers," noting that Budweis brewers had called their product "The Beer of Kings" since the sixteenth century [I do not recall the Americans ever had a King ­ but what do I know?]. And Budvar partisans pointed out that A­B's Budweiser wasn't even legally considered beer in Germany, where the Reinheitsgebot (Beer Purity Regulations) dating back to 1516 strictly forbid the use of rice in brewing beer. In recent years plucky Budvar has again won the right to use the names Budweiser and Bud in the European Union countries, but court cases continue to rage from Sweden to Hong Kong. Budvar's current tactic is to sell its beer in the United States as Czechvar, hoping that word of mouth about what they call (in a whisper, of course) "the real Budweiser" will win them the fame in U.S. bars that they have lost, at least for the moment, in the U.S. courts. Conclusion Go to Prague and drink the real thing. Footnotes 1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budweiser_Budvar_Brewery. 2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budweiser_Budvar_Brewery. 3 https://www.streetdirectory.com/food_editorials/beverages/beer/a_brief_history_about_budweiser.html..

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