A British brewer has been found to have infringed on a rival’s trademark with one of its beer labels.
Samuel Smith said Cropton Brewery had used a “stylised white rose design” on labels for two of its beers, the BBC reports.
The presiding judge said Samuel Smith had registered the white rose design as a trademark in the 1960s.
Cropton Brewery used a white rose design on two of its beers, Yorkshire Warrior and Yorkshire Bitter. Samuel Smith claimed drinkers might think the beers were its own products because of the roses.
The judge ruled Cropton’s had infringed trademark rights on labels for Yorkshire Warrior but had not done so on labels for its Yorkshire Bitter.
The BBC quoted the judge as saying that “Yorkshire pride” was partly to blame for the legal dispute.
Cropton’s said it would give profits from the sale of Yorkshire Warrior to Samuel Smith who would then donate them to charity.
Yorkshire has long been affiliated with a white rose. During the Wars of the Roses, a series of English civil wars in the fifteenth century, rival houses of Lancaster and York were defined by their red and white roses.