Norfolk brewery fears for its future as London brewer takes it to High Court over lager name

Patrick Fisher at Redwell Brewery, Trowse. Photo : Steve Adams Archant

A threatened brewery today launches an appeal for help, as a “hellish” legal battle heads for the High Court.

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Camden Brewery and Redwell Brewery are set for a High Court showdown over their lager names. Photo : Steve Adams Camden Brewery and Redwell Brewery are set for a High Court showdown over their lager names. Photo : Steve Adams

Redwell Brewery, based in Trowse, is being sued for up to £100,000 by London’s Camden Town Brewery in a dispute over the name Hells lager.

The Norfolk firm is accused of trying to trade on the success of Camden Hells, made since 2010, and has been asked to stop making its own Hells Craft Lager.

Redwell has already spent £20,000 mounting its defence, with an estimated £30,000 more needed if a compromise is not reached.

The brewery has now launched an online crowdfunding appeal to fund its legal fight, with options ranging from £6 for Redwell playing cards to £700 to name a special beer for a month and get a case each month for a year.

The wrangle began a year after Redwell locked horns with Austrian drinks firm Red Bull, which told the brewery to change its name, saying Redwell and Red Bull were “confusingly similar”.

Camden fired a shot across the bows last September, sending a cease and desist letter, but Redwell claimed it heard nothing more until December 16 - a day after Camden lodged a claim at the High Court.

Patrick Fisher, co-owner of Redwell Brewery, said: “It’s been a hellish time when we just want to focus on making good beer and pushing the brewery forward,” he said.

“It’s soul-destroying, particularly when you know the foundation of their claim is just - to us - ludicrous.”

He said hells was seen by Germans as a generic description for light lager as is the term helles and hell along with others.

He added that he had changed the colour and design of the Hells logo to try to appease Camden.

He said he was advised the name Hells was legally safe before it was launched, and in defence papers filed with the High Court on Thursday referenced more than two dozen other beers available in the UK that had the name Hells within them.

Redwell employs nine full-time staff, and Mr Fisher said proceedings had put jobs at risk.

“We really need help,” he said. “The longer Camden drag this out, the more we need it.”

The legal claim centres on an allegation of passing off, which is legally defined as “making some false representation likely to induce a person to believe that the goods or services are those of another”.

Camden claimed that it invented the mark Hells, it was not used as a descriptive term and that Redwell’s Hells lager was identical to its own.

Asked why he refused to drop the name, Mr Fisher said: “Hells is used in alcohol very frequently and we don’t feel we should be restricted from doing something that’s quite commonplace.”

Camden Town Brewery had not responded to requests for comment at the time of going to press.

In an online statement, a spokesman said Camden had not trademarked Hells but a European trademark application was still in progress.

■ To see Redwell’s crowdfunding campaign, click here

■ Do you have a pub story? Email samuel.russell@archant.co.uk