Anheuser-Busch has *NO* sense of humor

[underpants]

http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/168045

A T-shirt featuring bathroom humor may have made for a good gag gift, but to the legal department at Anheuser-Busch, it's not a laughing matter.


The beer giant sent a letter Monday to a small Blacksburg biotechnology company that produced the T-shirt, claiming that it represented a trademark infringement.

The T-shirt in question depicts a doctor, a nurse and a bare-bottomed patient. The nurse is holding a tray with a beer bottle on it and a frosty mug of beer in her hand. The caption has the doctor, who is pointing at the patient, saying, "I said a Butt Light."

"That one we never sold, but gastroenterologists love it," said Tracy Wilkins, president of TechLab. "It makes a great gag gift."

Selling T-shirts is not a profit-making venture for TechLab. Mostly, the company gives the shirts away to clients. But for $15, plus shipping, anyone can purchase one online.

The company, which was founded in 1989, is dedicated to the study of anaerobic organisms.

Specifically, TechLab develops, manufactures and sells intestinal diagnostics worldwide that focus on intestinal inflammation, antibiotic-associated diarrhea and parasitology.

Wilkins said they have about 15 different T-shirts designs that add humor to a business that works with feces on a daily basis.

"We are a poop business. We have to have a sense of humor," Wilkins said. "It's sort of sixth-grade humor."

The company's slogan is "No. 1 in the No. 2 business."

:bounce::rofl:

Wilkins said he will comply, although he will give away a few more shirts. The T-shirt is no longer on the company's Web site.

"We're sending back a letter saying we will cease and desist and we are including some of the T-shirts," he said.

Sarah Wiant, a professor of law at Washington and Lee University who teaches courses on intellectual property including trademarks, said TechLab's T-shirt is likely not a violation.

Wiant said large companies like Anheuser-Busch vigorously enforce their trademarks, in part, because the law says that they must protect their marks or they risk losing them.

"I would argue that this little company probably has a very strong claim of defense -- but sometimes big companies browbeat others," she said.

[DainBramaged]

1. Just another reason (on a long list) not to drink their swill.

[Mudoria]

5. Thanks but I like my Bud Light.. you're free to drink

whatever swill you prefer

[hendo]

2. Aww, I didn't even know this shirt existed. I so would have bought one for my dad

It would have been right up his alley. Stupid Anheuser-Busch. Damn them and their sh*tty piss water that they have the audacity to call beer.

[kskiska]

3. I worked for a package design studio

and the owners were in meetings with Georgia-Pacific reps regarding toilet paper packaging design. The guys from the studio were sort of having fun with the product (double entendres, etc.), but returned from a meeting saying that Georgia-Pacific had absolutely no sense of humor about it at all.

[wtmusic]

7. Yes I've also learned that lesson

when you mock a company's brand before them, you do it at your own peril

[Snarkturian Clone]

4. Enter the beer snobs

who will all post for the sole reason of showing off their beer-snobbery.

[jakem]

6. is it snobbery to not drink piss-water?

guess ill have to live with it.

[LanternWaste]

8. That would be *all* beer.

"...piss-water?"

That would be *all* beer.

See-- now that's snobbery!

[wtmusic]

9. Yipes, a wine snob. Usually you guys sleep in.

All wine is piss.

Now let's talk cognac... :P

[LanternWaste]

10. Nope. No wine, no beer... it's all piss.

Nope. No wine, no beer... it's all piss-- different flavors and colors of piss, but still piss. :)

[Sanctified]

12. If you are going to drink blue collar beer at least make it PBR. n/t

[Snarkturian Clone]

16. PBR is no longer a blue collar beer

It's for rich-but-pretending-to-be-poor hipsters where I live.

[Sanctified]

11. Well I guess since their beer tastes like ass, Butt Light is an infringement. n/t

[wtmusic]

13. LOL interesting legal tack

but Coors Lite has already turned shit-tasting beer into a generic commodity

[uppityperson]

14. Link to their website, check out the other shirts...

http://www.techlab.com/tshirts.htm

Soft Serve




Ice Maker:

[underpants]

15. too funny

[KamaAina]

17. So when are they going after the fundies and their "This Blood's For You" shirts?

Hmmmm?

edit: header