EP-196 Brendan Palfreyman of Trademark Your Beer
This week\u2019s guest comes at the beer world through a unique angle\u2014the legal lens. He\u2019s a lawyer based in New York State whose firm works with small brewers on a variety of business issues, but his personal focus at the firm is in trademark and IP. You\u2019ve probably come across his thoughts on Twitter, where he shares updates on major trademark disputes like the Lagunitas and Sierra Nevada battle over the term IPA and Stone\u2019s fight with MillerCoors over the Keystone brand. Brendan\u2019s commentary\u2014which is shared on his blog, but mostly on Twitter\u2014has become something of a 101 guide for brewers and beer fans on how to talk about these things.\xa0 If you\u2019ve seen these debates, you know the beer world could really use a primer.\xa0 While it\u2019s true that most beer fans don\u2019t like to see lawsuits between brands they\u2019re fans of, the business reality is that, sometimes, these things need to be handled by professionals. And that often serves to highlight how delicate some of the bonds can be among breweries who otherwise subscribe to a cooperative ideal. The reality is that there are 7,000 breweries out there, and you owe it to your employees and shareholders to protect what\u2019s their\u2019s, regardless of the optics. On today\u2019s episode, we dig into Brendan\u2019s career and his perspective on the state of craft brewing from a legal perspective. After that, he elaborates on some of the cases that have made him Twitter famous.