Anheuser-Busch wins European rights trademark

Brewer Anheuser-Busch (AB), which owns the Budweiser brand of beer, won on Tuesday a long legal battle against the Czech company Budejovicky Budvar over who owns the trademark "Bud" in Europe. A Luxembourg-based court found in favour of AB by dismissing an action brought by the Czech firm. AB, initially a US company that has since been bought by the Belgian-Brazilian group AB Inbev, tried from 1996 to 2000 to secure the rights to "Bud" in Europe for a series of products, including beer. Budejovicky Budvar argued that on the contrary, "Bud" was a brand that it already owned the rights to in Austria, the Czech Republic, France, Italy and Portugal. After being initially rebuffed, the Czech company's argument was later upheld by judges in Luxembourg in December 2008. On Tuesday, the General Court of the European Union said that AB could register the trademark "because of the insignificant use in France and Austria of the appellation of origin ‘bud’." AB is now authorised to use the trademark across the 27-member European Union.