Friday, October 26, 2007

A beer by any other name

Sam Adams has a problem. Oh, not me -- at least not yet. I mean the other Sam Adams. One of the other Sam Adamses. Actually two of the other Sam Adamses.

I happen to live in Kentucky. But Sam Adams who lives in Portland, Oregon, is running for mayor, and in doing so he's drawn the unwanted attention of a lawyer working for a third Sam Adams -- namely Sam Adams The Beer.

Mark Mason and Dave Anderson, hosts of a KEX-Radio show bought two web domains -- http://www.samadamsformayor.com/ and http://www.mayorsamadams.com/, and Sam Adams The Beer has had its lawyer send a nasty letter to Mason and Anderson demanding that they surrender the domains. The problem is, Sam Adams The Beer has been using the trademark since 1984 while Sam Adams The Candidate has been using his own name since 1963. Coincidentally, Sam Adams The Author (me) has also been using the name since 1963. On learning this, Sam Adams The Beer's attorney has hinted that she might allow Sam Adams The Candidate to go on using his own name as his web address until the election, but not after that.

So far, I haven't gotten a letter demanding that I surrender http://www.samadams.org/ or http://www.samadamsbooks.blogspot.com/. I'm not sure whether Sam Adams The Rocky Mountain News Columnist, Sam Adams The Philadelphia City Paper Film Critic, Sam Adams The NFL Tackle, or Sam Adams The KEZI Sports Anchor have had any contact from Sam Adams The Beer, but I'm sure we're all waiting breathlessly.

Some people are calling for a boycott of Sam Adams The Beer, but since Sam Adams The Beer is demanding that Sam Adams The Candidate give them his web addresses, I would suggest he at least give them something.

How about the finger?

4 comments:

Rusty said...

http://rustypdx.blogspot.com/search/label/Sam%20Adams%20Boycott

Sam Adams said...

As if being on the no-fly list wasn't bad enough.

Sam Adams said...

Sam,

I hope you're kidding. I'm flying Tuesday and I really don't want to have to explain that I'm a tourist; not a terrorist.

Sam

Sam Adams said...

I'm not, although I imagine if you haven't run into trouble yet you won't now. Read this.