"I was disappointed I didn't get a phone call," says Dry Dock owner Kevin DeLange. "If I had gotten a phone call, I still would have changed it. I would have been happy to do it."
The dispute comes just a month after Oskar Blues Brewing in Longmont changed the name of its Gordon beer to G'Knight following a trademark dispute with Gordon Biersch.
Delange, who opened Dry Dock in 2005, said he asked 7 Seas owner Mike Runion if they could work something out along the lines of Avery Brewing of Boulder and California's Russian River Brewing; those two breweries famously teamed up in 2004 on a brew called Collaboration Not Litigation Ale after discovering that they were both making Belgian-style beers with the name Salvation."But it was a 'no, you need to change it,'" DeLange says. "The guy was being a real ass about it, which is not something you see that much in the craft brewing industry. I would have expected them to have taken the high road."
Runion declined to talk about it, saying he was in the middle of making deliveries. The brewery, founded in 2008, makes Cutt's Amber Ale, Port Royal Export Style Stout and Ballz Deep Double IPA, among other beers.7 Seas trademarked the name about three months before Dry Dock began making its beer, DeLange says. The brewery primarily distributes its beer around the Seattle and Tacoma areas, according to its website. Dry Dock currently distributes its kegs and 22-ounce bomber bottles, including Seven Seas, only in Colorado.
"We will drop the Seven Seas and just call it Dry Dock Double IPA," DeLange adds. "We thought about Seven Cease and Desist, but we won't. We have new labels on the way. It will be about three weeks before those come in and will swap it out."
