(Denver, CO) – Two Saturdays ago, Renegade Brewing co-founder, Brian O;Connell, made a short appearance on the Colorado Craft Beer Show. Among the topics discussed was the recent dispute with Sixpoint in which the latter reportedly sent Renegade a cease-and-desist letter for infringing on a trademark. Sixpoint produces a beer called, “Righteous,” and Renegade produces a beer called, “Ryeteous.”

Here is more from O’Connell on the dispute…

“We were contacted by them. I had a conversation with the President of Sixpoint. When I first spoke with him, I thought, ‘This is great. We are not in the same market. We make a similar beer with a similar name. This is awesome. We can make a collaboration beer.’ I proposed we make a double IPA and call it Righteous Ryeteous. Maybe have some fun with it. Man, I was excited. They didn’t have the same feeling apparently.”

“Next thing you know, we get a cease-and-desist from their attorney and we have to change the name [which they did/are doing to “Redacted”].”

“Really, that [name] conveys our feeling on the issue…that we didn’t want to change the name. We were forced to change it.”

On whether he had a case because the names were spelled differently, O’Connell says, “That is an interesting question. We would have had to go to court to decide that and I didn’t want to take it to that level. I didn’t get into this business to get into legal battles.”

“Utimately, it was either that we enter into a legal battle or take the high road and march forward from here.”