A year-old Austin brewery has prevailed in round 1 of its legal battle with craft beer giant New Belgium Brewing Co. over the rights to a product name both claim as their own.

But the fight over "Slow Ride" is likely to continue.

In Denver, a federal magistrate judge has ruled that Colorado has no jurisdiction in New Belgium's lawsuit against Oasis Texas Brewing Co. to stop or severely restrict its use of the name Slow Ride for its pale ale, one of its four core beers. The judge dismissed the case and also declined to transfer it to a court in Texas.

"I thought it was a pretty strong statement from the judge," Max Schleder, general manager for Oasis Texas Brewing, said Tuesday.

But New Belgium made clear it intends to continue pursuing its claim that its right to Slow Ride takes precedence, even though Oasis Texas was selling beer under that name before the Fort Collins, Colo., brewery filed for its trademark.

"This is in no way a reflection of the merits of our case, but simply a redirection to the U.S. District Court of Texas as the proper venue to determine this case," New Belgium said in an emailed response. "We remain open to settling this situation amicably and out of court. Short of that, we will continue to pursue geographic clarification as to rights and usage of our Slow Ride trademark brand in a Texas U.S. District Court."

The fight is the latest in a string of trademark disputes in an increasingly crowded field of craft brewers that rely on wordplay to draw consumers' attention.

Schleder, lamenting the $100,000 in legal fees incurred to fight the matter so far, said he remains frustrated that the larger issue has yet to be resolved and also would prefer to handle the matter out of court. He and the other Oasis Texas principals have discussed with New Belgium representatives the possibility of a joint-use agreement, of setting a reasonable value for the Slow Ride brand and of the financial impact of having to relaunch a beer under a new name, he said.

Schleder said he could not be specific about what his company proposed, but he said New Belgium never made an offer or counter-offer, before or since it filed suit on Feb. 9.

New Belgium alerted Oasis Texas late last year that it owned the Slow Ride trademark and would be rolling out its own beer, a lower-calorie India pale ale, under that name shortly.

The Austin brewery responded with a cease-and-desist letter arguing that it had Slow Ride in the marketplace eight days prior to the New Belgium copyright and therefore had "common law" rights to the name. It later filed a trademark application.

Schleder called New Belgium's request to have the case heard in Colorado "absurd." It was made in part on the grounds that Oasis Texas had participated in the 2014 Great American Beer Festival in Denver. More than 1,300 craft breweries entered the competition and more than 700 were present on site to pour samples for convention attendees.

The order dismissing the suit was signed Friday.

Oasis Texas wants to settle the case quickly, preferably in private.

"We don't have any interest in spending another $100,000 to defend another lawsuit," Schleder said. "We hope we don't have to do that."