Edinburgh brewery launches legal battle against BrewDog over beer name

An Edinburgh brewery has begun legal proceedings against multinational beer and pub chain, BrewDog, over a dispute over the name of one of its beers.

Jump Ship Brewing, based in Leith, is contesting BrewDog’s use of the name ‘Shore Leave’.

The non-alcoholic brewery, founded by Sonja Mitchell (pictured above) in 2019, launched its first edition of Shore Leave beer in June 2022. The second version in the series, a sour beer fermented with berries, was released in May this year.

However, in July, Mitchell discovered BrewDog had shared an image of a new ale product it too had labelled ‘Shore Leave’ with the proposed tagline: ‘It’s time to jump ship’.

Jump Ship, whose products are stocked in various restaurants and bars including Club Soda in Covent Garden, and the Bell Jar in Glasgow, did not trademark the name Shore Leave. It is understood BrewDog applied for the trademark on 21 March 2023 and was open for opposition for two months. Its application to trademark the name was approved on 9 June.

Following its successful application, BrewDog launched the beer in September.

Mitchell contacted the Aberdeenshire-based brewery directly but said she has not heard from the brewer.

BrewDog, which operates 55 venues in the UK, has not withdrawn its beer from the market.

Mitchell said she was “incredibly disappointed” to pursue a legal challenge against the company but Jump Ship had put “considerable investment" into the development of Shore Leave series that it could not afford to lose.

She said when BrewDog launched its beer, Jump Ship was the only brewer in the UK market with a beer called Shore Leave in production.

“The basis of our claim is that BrewDog’s actions cause a risk of confusion amongst our stockists and drinkers, and this causes financial harm to our brand,” Mitchell added.

A spokesperson for BrewDog said: “As the registered owner of the Shore Leave trademark in the UK, we are obviously surprised at this action, but also disappointed. Ms Mitchell might have challenged our trademark application months ago as is standard practice but chose not to.

“We’ve sought to settle this matter amicably and offered a range of fantastic collab ideas which would have had a huge boost for Ms Mitchell’s brewery. We even agreed not to use the phrase 'Jump Ship' in our advertising as a gesture of goodwill. We’d much rather work with the industry than against it.

“We regret Ms Mitchell has decided to take this action instead of working collaboratively with us to help her business grow.”

This is not the first time BrewDog has been drawn into a trademark dispute. In 2017, it was involved in a row over the name of a family-run pub called the Wolf.

The brother-and-sister team behind the Birmingham pub were forced to drop the plan to name the pub Lone Wolf after receiving a legal warning from BrewDog which had launched a spirit bearing the same name. The brewery eventually withdrew from the legal row, blaming "trigger-happy" lawyers for the action.

*Image credit: Chris Watt photography *