Distiller must give up logo, province says
Image used by craft brand of booze looks too much like a highway sign
The owners of a local craft distillery have been forced to brew up a new logo after the province told the company its original logo bore too similar a resemblance to trademarked provincial property.
Greg Lipin and Jody Miall, coowners of North of 7 Distillery on St. Laurent Boulevard, were asked by the Ministry of Transportation to change their logo due to “intellectual property” issues.
The logo in question pays tribute to King’s Highway 7, but Lipin said the legal notice received by the distillers stated it was too similar to the Provincial Route Marker Shield.
The MTO said in a statement the distillery’s logo was “a prohibited mark under the Trade-marks Act.”
“A mark on liquor bottles consisting of, or so nearly resembling as to be likely to be mistaken for, the Provincial Route Marker Shield could lead to the belief that the products have received endorsement or are produced and sold under governmental patronage, approval and authority.”
Lipin and Miall were permitted to keep the disputed logo until their current product inventory is sold. They have since begun working with a graphic designer on a new logo for early 2017.
Lipin said he was surprised to hear from the MTO given the distillery and other companies have used variations of the logo since it was launched in 2013.
“The MTO said, ‘No that’s our intellectual property,’ and anything immediately resembling that could be interpreted as me using their property,” Lipin said. “A bunch of people have sent me examples of multiple businesses in Ontario that use almost the exact likeness of the sign, and they’ve had no problems.”
Lipin said his own research led him to believe that “from the time it’s decommissioned, there’s a fiveyear period where you can’t use a similarity and then I could.” Lipin said the distillery’s logo was modelled off “a 1940s sign.”
“It never really entered my mind because I didn’t think I had done anything wrong. I think maybe because we are (a spirits distillery) making something with alcohol, the ministry doesn’t want to be associated with us.”
Lipin, who is also a secretary for the Ontario Craft Distillers Association, believes that despite the cost of transitioning away from the old logo, the greater threat to the business of craft distillers is an upcoming budget bill that will be announced by the province in 2017.
The bill, said Lipin, will propose a 61.5 per cent tax on each bottle of spirits sold — 10 times that of the tax placed on craft beer.
The Ontario Craft Distillers Association was in consultation with the government and had hoped for a graduated tax or rebate model to be proposed instead.
With more than 30 craft breweries and brew pubs already competing in the National Capital Region, Lipin is worried the tax will threaten the ability of small-scale distillers to overcome start-up costs faced by new entrants in the craft industry.