Indiana, Michigan Breweries Settle Trademark Dispute Over A Beer

HUDSONVILLE, MI — Not every beer industry trademark dispute, or potential dispute, involves lawyers, barbed statements and social media bickering and backlash.

Sometimes, brewers settle it over – you guessed it – a beer.

That’s how it went for Bill White and Andy Steenbergen of White Flame Brewing Co. of Hudsonville, who drove down to Indiana this month to work out a cordial trademark agreement with Three Floyds Brewing Co. of Munster.

Each brewery bottled an imperial stout this year named “Black Flame.”

“We got quite a bit of internet chatter about it,” said Bill White, who opened White Flame brewery in Hudsonville in 2012

White’s Black Flame is an imperial stout aged in maple syrup bourbon barrels. The microbrewery made a limited run of about 600 Black Flame bottles as a special anniversary beer this winter, the third year it’s been available.

Three Floyds, which made about 21,000 total barrels in 2014, is Indiana’s second-largest beer-maker. Its Black Flame was also a special, limited-run beer... CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY AT MLIVE