Wednesday, April 10, 2013

The new name is Rinn Duin

Rinn Duin is now the name for the brewery being built along Route 37 West in Toms River. 

The company announced the name change via email on Saturday after encountering a trademark conflict with Blackthorn Cider.

Owner Chip Town says they knew about the English cider company but did not think there would be a conflict because of the differences between the beverages. 

The matter bubbled up when logo work was being done last month. While in Washington, D.C., for the Craft Brewers Conference, Chip and daughter Jacqui ran the problem by some trademark attorneys doing conference seminars.

"They told me I was dead in the water," he says. "Cider, for trademark issues, is on the same level as wine, beer, spirits ... (It's) is all first-level conflict as far as trademarks go."


(Name overlaps do happen: Climax Brewing in Roselle Park, incorporated in 1994 and launched in 1996, uses Climax in the name of all of its ales. California's Eel River Brewing made a now-retired  lager called Climax California Classic around the same time.) 

Chip says they're not thrilled about having to walk away from the Blackthorn Brewing name, but they're relieved the issue didn't happen after product had already gone out the brewery door. 

The new name comes from a brew that will be among the company's planned lineup of English and Irish ales. 

"Rinn Duin was going to be the name of our red ale. It's the name of my mothers ancestral home in Ireland, Castle Rinn Duin," he says. "It certainly has a tremendous connection to us. It was just the logical choice for us to make the name change to."

The new logo will use the same typeface as their former and will feature a line drawing of the ruins of Castle Rinn Duin, which is located in County Roscommon in Ireland.

Meanwhile, the brewery buildout is moving along, and the company continues to pilot their recipes.

"The (taproom) bar started going in yesterday. The floor is down; it's all Sheetrocked. It's starting to look good," Chip says.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not a very shelf-friendly name, to be honest, and the logo (if that's the final one) is terrible. They should spend a little more time and think of the marketing possibilities and the crowded shelf and tap space they will be competing for.

Jeff Linkous said...

That is just working stopgap logo, they have a new one in development. Even the logo work for the previous name was still being done.

As for the name, I don't think the it is problematic; if it's a matter of pronunciation, Rinn DOON is far easier than some of the imports from Belgium and Germany that don't exactly roll of the tongue.

Also, the name is intended to invoke a sentiment and give a nod to beer styles. In that vein, it's much like High Point using Ramstein for its beers. That name is meant to denote German style beers as well as invoke a spirit of American-German cooperation. It is borrowed from the name of the US air base in Germany.