Budweiser trademark dispute

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Budweiser is a German language adjective referring to the Bohemian city of Budweis, which was until 1919 part of Austria-Hungary. Later it became known as České Budějovice part of Czechoslovakia, and since 1993, part of the modern day Czech Republic.

The trademark "Budweiser" has been the subject of a legal disputes since the beginning of the 20^th century. There are two beer companies claiming rights to use it:^[1] ^[2]

Budweiser Budvar (Budějovický Budvar), a brewery based in České Budějovice, Czech Republic. Here, the word Budweiser expresses reference to the seat of the brewery.
Anheuser-Busch, a US based beer company, which produces Budweiser (Anheuser-Busch) beer.

Anheuser-Busch started marketing their product as Budweiser in the United States in the late 19^th century. This was immediately after a Bohemian brewery located in České Budějovice launched their product in the US market under the original name, Budweiser Bürgerbrau.^{[citation needed]} Anheuser-Busch cites prior registration of the trademark in the US and battles for the right to use it worldwide in many legal disputes against Budvar in several countries.^[3] Budvar wishes to maintain its right to market their beer under their traditional trademark. Budvar has marketed its product this way since 1895 and claim that Budweiser is a generic name, just as the pilsener style comes from the town of Pilsen (Plzeň).

The existence of the Czech beer of the same name has caused problems in some markets. A long-standing agreement with the Czech brewery divided the rights to the name "Budweiser", so that the Anheuser-Busch product is marketed as "Bud" (in France and elsewhere) and "Anheuser-Busch B" (Germany)^[4], where the Czech beer has the rights to the name^[5]. Anheuser-Busch has made offers to buy out the Czech brewing company in order to secure global rights to the name "Budweiser" for both beers, but such offers have been refused.^{[citation needed]}