4 ms·

My brother owns (our last name.com). Our great great grandfather started and ran a fairly successful (pre-prohibition) brewery. Someone found out about our last

My brother owns (our last name.com). Our great great grandfather started and ran a fairly successful (pre-prohibition) brewery. Someone found out about our last name, trademarked it, and "restarted" the brewery with no relation to anyone in our family. The best part is they feigned ignorance when they "learned" that there were still living descendants in the area...

0des 4y ago
What's the next step?
- fourstar 4y ago
  Good question. We've talked to various lawyers throughout the years. The crappy part is that the people who resurrected it have hundreds of millions in real estate backed ventures (big $$$), so there's really not much we can do aside from pound sand considering we weren't brewing the beer, or enforcing the trademark. The even weirder thing is that they used his name as their contact email for the longest time on their website, made a brew dedicated to my late grandfather (a pediatrician they never met) based on tongue-depresser airplanes he made for his patients, and even had the gall to leave one of their first bottled brews at my great great grandfather's gravesite. So the only thing I can do is just raise awareness, and tell people who ask me if there is any relation (when they see/hear my last name) to not support them!
  - bee_rider 4y ago
    > even had the gall to leave one of their first bottled brews at my great great grandfather's gravesite. That's a weird thing to do. I can see wanting to steal an established brand because people are attracted to legacy, especially in the case of something like brewing. But leaving a tribute at his grave is, honestly, just bizarre behavior. Are the obsessed or something? Do they think they have some connection to your family? One of your family should try to work for them, maybe the company will treat them like the second coming. Or human sacrifice. But hey, worth a shot, right?
    - fourstar 4y ago
      Yeah, a bit obsessed, I reckon. What irks me the most is my late father collected breweriana from the old brewery (serving trays, tip trays, signs, etc.). From what I've heard, after inheriting some of his collection and attending the bottle/breweriana shows he went to, I found out from a couple of dealers, that one of the guys from the brewery has also been collecting. So now I've got competition with deep pockets in an otherwise esoteric hobby.
      - luhrkuhr 4y ago
        Weird folks out there. I’m named for my grandfather, a former MLB player with a World Series win to his name. While back found out there was a man impersonating him after his death, not too far from where we lived at the time. https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/news/2011/05/15/baseball-legend-rocky-nelson-not-quite/64253933007/ https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/news/2011/05/15/baseball...
        marcelluspye 4y ago
        Is this comment supposed to be the hook for a short story or film where you slowly learn that you're actually the grandson of the impostor?
        luhrkuhr 4y ago
        Ha! No, I was old enough to be at my grandfather’s well attended funeral to know who is the real Rocky.
        fourstar 4y ago
        What a story! Thanks for sharing. I love the bit in there about the lawyer buying the imposter the replica ring. It was written in a pretty unique way. My great great grandfather actually also owned a baseball team named after his signature beer. Random-fact: Abraham Lincoln's granddaughter's husband played for them.
        4y ago
  - gxs 4y ago
    Wow, this is enraging. It's situations like these that would test how truly civil I am. I'm not sure I'd be able to keep myself from retaliating in other ways.
  - jstanley 4y ago
    If every generation since your great great grandfather had 3 children, then you can expect your great great grandfather to have 81 descendants in your generation (most of whom would have a different surname - to a first approximation you only retain the surname if your connection to him is on the father's side at every level). I'm guessing you wouldn't know all of them, and in the olden days people had more kids so it could easily be a lot higher than that. Isn't it possible that the people running the brewery are also great great grandchildren of your great great grandfather?
    - squirtle24 4y ago
      Some light googling led me to the brewery in question. On their About page, it would appear the answer is a no. They didn't know who the GG grandfather was until they randomly saw his name on a building, and then decided to name a beer after him.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
maratc 4y ago
I'm sorry, I don't understand. Say I feel a lot of respect to e.g. Amelia Earhart, so much so that I want to establish an air-exploration company and name it Earhart Air Explorers. Do I need to get an approval from all of her descendants first?
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

0des 4y ago

What's the next step?

fourstar 4y ago
Good question. We've talked to various lawyers throughout the years. The crappy part is that the people who resurrected it have hundreds of millions in real estate backed ventures (big $$$), so there's really not much we can do aside from pound sand considering we weren't brewing the beer, or enforcing the trademark. The even weirder thing is that they used his name as their contact email for the longest time on their website, made a brew dedicated to my late grandfather (a pediatrician they never met) based on tongue-depresser airplanes he made for his patients, and even had the gall to leave one of their first bottled brews at my great great grandfather's gravesite. So the only thing I can do is just raise awareness, and tell people who ask me if there is any relation (when they see/hear my last name) to not support them!
- bee_rider 4y ago
  > even had the gall to leave one of their first bottled brews at my great great grandfather's gravesite. That's a weird thing to do. I can see wanting to steal an established brand because people are attracted to legacy, especially in the case of something like brewing. But leaving a tribute at his grave is, honestly, just bizarre behavior. Are the obsessed or something? Do they think they have some connection to your family? One of your family should try to work for them, maybe the company will treat them like the second coming. Or human sacrifice. But hey, worth a shot, right?
  - fourstar 4y ago
    Yeah, a bit obsessed, I reckon. What irks me the most is my late father collected breweriana from the old brewery (serving trays, tip trays, signs, etc.). From what I've heard, after inheriting some of his collection and attending the bottle/breweriana shows he went to, I found out from a couple of dealers, that one of the guys from the brewery has also been collecting. So now I've got competition with deep pockets in an otherwise esoteric hobby.
    - luhrkuhr 4y ago
      Weird folks out there. I’m named for my grandfather, a former MLB player with a World Series win to his name. While back found out there was a man impersonating him after his death, not too far from where we lived at the time. https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/news/2011/05/15/baseball-legend-rocky-nelson-not-quite/64253933007/ https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/news/2011/05/15/baseball...
      - marcelluspye 4y ago
        Is this comment supposed to be the hook for a short story or film where you slowly learn that you're actually the grandson of the impostor?
        luhrkuhr 4y ago
        Ha! No, I was old enough to be at my grandfather’s well attended funeral to know who is the real Rocky.
      - fourstar 4y ago
        What a story! Thanks for sharing. I love the bit in there about the lawyer buying the imposter the replica ring. It was written in a pretty unique way. My great great grandfather actually also owned a baseball team named after his signature beer. Random-fact: Abraham Lincoln's granddaughter's husband played for them.
        4y ago
- gxs 4y ago
  Wow, this is enraging. It's situations like these that would test how truly civil I am. I'm not sure I'd be able to keep myself from retaliating in other ways.
- jstanley 4y ago
  If every generation since your great great grandfather had 3 children, then you can expect your great great grandfather to have 81 descendants in your generation (most of whom would have a different surname - to a first approximation you only retain the surname if your connection to him is on the father's side at every level). I'm guessing you wouldn't know all of them, and in the olden days people had more kids so it could easily be a lot higher than that. Isn't it possible that the people running the brewery are also great great grandchildren of your great great grandfather?
  - squirtle24 4y ago
    Some light googling led me to the brewery in question. On their About page, it would appear the answer is a no. They didn't know who the GG grandfather was until they randomly saw his name on a building, and then decided to name a beer after him.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]

maratc 4y ago

I'm sorry, I don't understand. Say I feel a lot of respect to e.g. Amelia Earhart, so much so that I want to establish an air-exploration company and name it Earhart Air Explorers. Do I need to get an approval from all of her descendants first?

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]