Comstock based Bell’s Brewery has lost their trademark battle against a small brewery from North Carolina.

The Detroit Free Press reports that Bell’s filed the federal complaint in 2015, after Innovation Brewing applied for a trademark. Bell’s claimed that the brewery’s name sounded too similar to their own marketing phrase, “Bottling innovation since 1985”, even though that phrase was never used on bottles or packaging. In a decision that was made by the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board in December, and released last week, the complaint from the large Kalamazoo-area brewery was dismissed.

The board said that Bell’s use of the marketing phrase had not been associated with any single product, and therefore there wouldn’t be any confusion if Innovation Brewing was allowed to file their trademark.

Innovation Brewing is a small brewery that mainly sells its product in western North Carolina, while Bell’s products are sold in 32 states.

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