Hungary: Hungarian Supreme Court allows Anheuser-Busch to sell “Bud”

Anheuser-Busch Cos. convinced the Hungarian Supreme Court to cancel a rival’s right to sell "Bud" beer in Hungary, the St. Louis brewer announced April 26 in a press release.

The decision clears the way for A-B to claim exclusive rights to the Bud name in Hungary, a small but growing beer market. Also, an Egyptian court struck down a competitors rights to sell "Budweiser Budvar," strengthening A-B’s hold on the Budweiser name in Egypt, which it has held for 67 years.

The victories for Anheuser-Busch, the largest brewer in the U.S., are part of a nearly century-old international tug of war over the rights to "Bud" and "Budweiser." They came at the expense of Budejovicky Budvar, a brewer in the Czech Republic that has wrestled A-B over naming rights in dozens of countries.

The decision in Hungary, a central European nation of 10 million, "represents a significant expansion of our broad trademark rights in Europe," Tom Santel, president and chief executive officer of Anheuser-Busch International, said in a statement. "The ability to sell our flagship brand under the Bud name in Hungary positively will impact our business in this growing European beer market."

The appellation of origin dispute in Hungary runs back to 1998, when Anheuser-Busch challenged and defeated Budejovicky Budvar’s "Bud" trademark.

In Egypt, the trademark dispute was more about defending the Budweiser name than about the volume of beer, which is a tiny part of A-B’s worldwide sales. The company’s total sales, including equity stakes in Chinese and Mexican breweries, exceeded 156 million barrels of suds last year.

Advertisement"We are making solid progress in our battle to protect the brand names we’ve developed," said Santel. "Regardless of the size of the beer market, we owe it to our employees and shareholders to remain committed to protecting our famous trademarks throughout the world."

The Hungarian Supreme Court upheld lower court rulings, cancelling Budvar’s "appellation of origin." That term refers to a protection that is generally granted to goods, such as Bordeaux wine from France, whose production is tightly linked to a certain geographic location.

Budvar has an appellation of origin for "Budweiser" in Hungary.

A-B said the decision in Hungary was final and could not be appealed. A spokesman for Budvar did not return an e-mail seeking comment Thursday morning.

As a procedural step, A-B plans to ask Hungarian patent and trademark authorities to cancel Budvar’s opposition. Then, A-B plans to register its trademark for "Bud" in Hungary. That would give A-B a trademark to the name in 23 of 27 countries in the European Union.

The exceptions are Slovakia, Germany, Romania and the Czech Republic. A-B does not currently have trademark disputes with Budvar in those countries.

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