Lew is right, we don’t have all the details. If Magic Hat was a smaller brewery, would you think differently of their rights and their stance on the matter? Of course you would, you might even agree with them. Plenty of breweries have legal battles every day over trademarks, we just don’t hear about it because they don’t make a big production about it online. The only time we seem to hear about it is when they big guys are involved. Why? Because it is easier to rally support against a “big corporate giant” than against another little guy.

The bottom line is that none of us want to get involved–especially, the other breweries. I don’t care how you feel about Magic Hat, it is important to note that many breweries distribute their beer through the MillerCoors network. Waging a war against Magic Hat can only hurt us in the long run. No one wants to be black listed, trust me.

As I recall, several years ago many of us in the Twitterverse and blogoshere did champion for Rock Art Brewery, a small brewery in a slightly similar situation but with a drink company. However, the manner in which that was handled versus current case is much different in my opinion. The community rallied support, and the brewery handled it in a very professional manner.

I get tired of the hypocrisy of some brewers — I've seen lots of selective "cease and desist" for branding where a brewer will go after a smalleror new brewery yet turn a blind eye to the larger brewers.

“Ben Self, founding partner of Blue State Digital, the consulting firm that developed and executed the ground-breaking online, grassroots organization of thousands of volunteers leveraging digital and social media for the Obama presidential campaign.”

He was the “The architect of Barack Obama’s 2008 online presidential campaign” aka “The Social Networker”

“Ben Self is a specialist in building successful online engagements between organizations and their customers or constituents. In 2004, with four other veterans of Howard Dean’s Internet team, he founded Blue State Digital, a consulting firm that specializes in creating new media strategy and technology for political candidates, non-profits, and companies. Blue State Digital’s software and strategy powers the online presence of the largest and most prominent Democratic candidates and progressive organizations, including the presidential campaign of Barack Obama. Blue State Digital also serves numerous non-profits and corporations, such as AT&T, the Red Cross, Madonna’s Raising Malawi, HBO, the Tony Awards, New York University, the Hearst Corporation, and the Sundance Film Festival.”

http://m.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/the-social-networker-20110827-1jf9q.html