A challenge by Guinness to another company's use of the name Kilkenny Brewing Company Limited was upheld by a High Court judge yesterday.
Guinness Ireland Group Ltd and E. Smithwick and Sons of Kilkenny, which brews Kilkenny Irish Beer, secured an order preventing the Kilkenny Brewing Co Ltd from using that name.
In a reserved judgment, Ms Justice Laffoy ordered the directors of the Kilkenny Brewing Company to change its name because of a likelihood that the public would get an impression of a connection between the company and the producers of Kilkenny Irish Beer.
She said the Kilkenny Brewing Company came to the attention of the Guinness Group following a newspaper article in February 25th, 1996, about a plan for a "brewery, night club and restaurant" in the Martello Tower on Strand Road, Sandymount, Dublin.
The article stated the tower would be the "home for a new brand of beer, O'Sullivans". Evidence had been given that the reference in the article to the project being "under the imprimatur of Kilkenny Beer Company" was incorrect.
There had also been plans for a micro-brewery in an old building known as The Maltings in Kilkenny. The intention was that the Kilkenny Brewing Co Ltd would be the holding company.
The business intended to be carried out in The Maltings would be by another company, O'Sullivan Brewing Co Ltd, which also reflected a brewing tradition in Kilkenny. (There had been an O'Sullivan brewery there from 1792 to 1922.)
Ms Justice Laffoy said the micro-brewing project had not advanced beyond the incorporation of Kilkenny Brewing Co in 1995, which had not traded. The Maltings had not been acquired.
The Sandymount project had not progressed and was "on hold".
Guinness Group and Smithwick had claimed they had established a reputation in the word "Kilkenny", when used in connection with beer.
The two companies also believed it was inevitable the use of the name of Kilkenny Brewing Co Ltd in association with beer was likely to confuse people into perceiving a link or association between Guinness Group and Kilkenny Brewing Company and in particular Kilkenny Irish Beer.
The judge found that by December 1995, after Kilkenny beer had been launched on the Irish market, Guinness Group and Smithwick had an established good will in Kilkenny when used in connection with the word "beer".
Ms Justice Laffoy said it was unrealistic to assume the name Kilkenny Beer Company could be shut out from the public perception so as to avoid giving a wrongful impression of a connection with the Guinness and Smithwick business.
The judge granted an injunction restraining Kilkenny Brewing Co Ltd using the name or any similar name or title in which the word "Kilkenny" is used in conjunction with the word "beer" or cognate words. She also directed the company to change its name.