Canada's Molson Breweries may be older, but Pottsville's Yuengling is true blue American. And that, said the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, settles the argument over which is America's oldest brewery.

Most people, beer drinkers included, consider America to be the United States, not Canada, the Patent and Trademark judges ruled.

Fifth-generation brewery owner Richard L. Yuengling Jr. was sure of that geographic perception even before his battle with Molson over the slogan "America's Oldest Brewery."

"When Kate Smith stands up and sings 'God Bless America,' she's not singing about Saskatchewan," he said.

The dispute had been fermenting since 1993, when Yuengling applied for federal registration of the slogan it has used for decades. The company wanted to continue to use the slogan on posters, playing cards, mugs, caps, T-shirts and other novelties, as it has since 1957.

In 1994, the Patent and Trademark Office published the Yuengling slogan in a legal notice. In 1995, Molson filed its opposition to Yuengling's request for official trademark status.

Molson, founded in Canada 40 years before Yuengling opened in Pottsville, claimed that "America" was synonymous with "North America." Because Canada is part of the North American continent, Yuengling's use of the "Oldest Brewery in America" slogan was "deceptively misdescriptive," Molson lawyers argued.

The next 2-1/2 years produced a volley of arguments and counter-arguments from both sides.

The lengthy process is typical, said attorney Laura G. Miller. Miller and attorney Gary H. Levin, both of the Philadelphia law firm of Woodcock, Washburn, Kurtz, Mackiewicz & Norris, represented Yuengling.

"This is just the nature of proceedings for the trademark appeals board," Miller said. "It's not unusual."

Miller and Levin argued that "Molson had to show that U.S. customers needed to think that America included Canada. Molson didn't show that," she said. "And I don't think it's going to be possible for them to show that.

"People in the United States overwhelming believe that America means this country."

Miller and Levin were successful. A three-judge panel ruled on Oct. 30 in Yuengling's favor, granting it official right to use the slogan.

Yuengling testified before the panel that his family's brewery, which has used the slogan since 1957, was entered on the Pennsylvania Inventory of Historic Places and the National register of Historic Places.

Yuengling was founded in 1829. Molson, headquartered in Toronto, began in 1786.

Molson's attorneys called on Webster's Dictionary to argue that because America includes Canada, it is America's oldest brewery.

According to Webster's, America is defined as " ... either continent of the Western Hemisphere (North America or South America); often, specifically, the United States of America."

To claim Yuengling is the oldest brewery in America would deceive beer drinkers, they claimed.

The judges favored Yuengling, writing in their Oct. 30 decision:

"While (Molson) may argue that 'at least some people would be likely to equate the term "America" with "North America," and thus be deceived by (Yuengling's) use of the mark "America's Oldest Brewery,'" we find no basis for concluding that there would be a significant number of consumers who would not recognize the difference between the claims of the two breweries. Thus, (Yuengling's) goods, being from the oldest brewery in the United States of America, are not misdescribed when the term 'America' is used in connection with them."

Richard Yuengling rues the day, Oct. 23, 1993, on which he applied for the registration.

"I've been here 40 years, we've always had 'America's Oldest Brewery' on our labels. Then, somebody gave me the big idea to have it trademarked," he said. "This has cost us two years and a lot of legal fees."

But the fight was worth the time and trouble, Yuengling said, because the brewery is a major attraction for coal region tourists because it produces an excellent product and because its plant on Howard Avenue has for decades been accepted as America's oldest brewery.

The battle wasn't about geography, Yuengling said. It was about an advertising slogan he feels justified using.

He doesn't dispute the fact that Molson is indeed North America's oldest brewery.

"They are in North America. We have no problem with that," Yuengling said. "But we're documented in state and national historic registries. There can be only one oldest brewery, and Yuengling's is it."