Samuel Smith's launches legal battle with Cropton Brewery over logo
A small brewery in North Yorkshire which is attempting to raise cash for wounded servicemen is being sued by rival brewer Samuel Smith's over the use of Yorkshire's white rose on its labels.
Cropton Brewery launched its Yorkshire Warrior beer in 2008 having won permission from the Yorkshire Regiment to use its emblem - a lion carrying the standard of St George above a white rose (pictured) - on labels and pump clips.
But Tadcaster-based Samuel Smith's served Cropton with a writ, claiming that use of the "stylised white rose device" was a trademark infringement, according to local paper the York Press.
The writ said the white rose device was "confusingly similar" to the white rose used by Samuel Smith's as its trademark since the 1960s.
Samuel Smith's is seeking an injunction, damages, and the destruction of the beer bottles and pump clips.
But Cropton, which has so far raised more than £10,000 for soldiers wounded in Afghanistan since the beer was launched in 2008, intends to defend the High Court action.
In its defence to the writ, Cropton Brewery said: "The Yorkshire rose is a common symbol and the claimant Samuel Smith's] is not entitled to assert any kind of monopoly over its use."
No one from Samuel Smith's was available for comment.
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By Neil Gerrard
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