Moosehead Breweries Ltd. is confidently entering the lime lager war, but hopefully without a fight.
The Saint John beer maker announced today that its Moosehead Light Lime label would be available in most LCBO outlets across Ontario in time for the Labour Day weekend.
The new label launches in the midst of a bitter battle between Anheuser-Busch Cos., Labatt Brewing Co. (its Canadian division) and Waterloo, Ont.-based Brick Brewing Co. Limited.
Anheuser filed a lawsuit claiming Brick infringed its Bud Light Lime trademarks with the use of limes and the colour green on labels of its Red Baron Lime product.
However, according to a report in the New Brunswick Business Journal, Joel Levesque, Moosehead’s vice-president of public affairs, the brewer checked with lawyers about trademarks and packaging when Bud Light Lime entered the Canadian market.
“One of the things we found when we launched Moose Light Lime was that the word lime cannot be trademarked–it’s a descriptor,” he told the Journal. However, that did not stop Moosehead from having another meeting after word broke of the Bud Light/Brick battle.
Both Bud Light Lime and Red Baron Lime launched in Ontario this summer and come in clear bottles with similar colours used on both labels. Anheuser alleges that consumers are confusing the two beer products.
The new Moosehead brew comes in the iconic green bottle with a label that has a thick silver border. The word “Lime” appears in a green sans serif type that appears above the picture of a whole lime, and a lime slice.
The brewer said it has sold more than 1.5 million bottles of Moosehead Light Lime since launching it at a Bon Jovi concert in Moncton in June.
“We’re responding to the overwhelming market demand for lime-flavoured beer in Ontario,” Moosehead president, Andrew Oland, said in a release. “We have been getting e-mails and calls from Ontarians asking us when they can purchase Moosehead Light Lime.”
