Photo by Mr. T in DC
Citizens Brewing Company—a brewery that’s not even scheduled to open until summer of 2014—has already hit a major road bump: Its name.
Local craft brewery DC Brau sent a cease and desist order to the Silver Spring brewery-to-be over its name, which it feels may confuse people. As DCBeer first reported, the cease and desist order comes from DC Brau’s worry that the name “Citizens” is too similar to the name of their flagship beer “The Citizen.” DC Brau CEO Brandon Skall told DCBeer that they’ve spent “hundreds of thousands of dollars marketing and developing this beer,” and is worried the name of the brewery “creates customer confusion.”
Skall has issued the following statement to DCist about the cease and desist order:
DC Brau is proud to be a part of the ever-growing DC/MD/VA beer community, and is excited to continually see others realize their dream of opening breweries/brewpubs in this market. Our beer community is made stronger with new ideas and styles that introduce more and more people to good, local beer. We welcome this growth.
That said, we have worked very hard over the past three years to build DC Brau in the Mid-Atlantic region, with a significant investment in developing and marketing our flagship brews, including The Citizen for which we hold a trademark on the name when used in relation to beer.
When we heard about the Citizens Brewing Co. opening, we approached them about our concern about potential brand confusion within the market. We had hoped to address the situation without having to resort to any kind of legal action, but unfortunately that wasn’t possible. We appreciate that they have decided to change their moniker, and wish them every success as they continue to work toward opening their brewery in 2014.
In response, Citizens posted the following statement on Facebook:
This weekend we received a surprise from DC Brau Brewing Company in the form of a Cease & Desist letter. We’ll take their threat of litigation as a compliment. They believe in our success just as much as we do! In order to focus on opening our doors in Summer 2014 and creating the best brewery we can for you, we’re changing our name and announcing the new moniker later today. We’re proud to be bringing craft beer to downtown Silver Spring no matter what name you call us!
Citizens is still planning to open in the summer of 2014, but under a different name. The brewing company is expected to reveal the new name today, but as of the time of writing this, none has been announced yet. We’ll update when it is.
Update: Citizens Brewing Company is now the Denizens Brewing Company.
