ROCKFORD, MI — A Michigan microbrewery is fighting an Illinois startup brewery in federal court over the rights to the name Rockford Brewing Company.

Rockford Brewing Co. of Rockford, Ill., filed suit in U.S. District Court in Illinois on Jan. 13 against Rockford Brewing Co. of Rockford, Mich.

The Illinois brewery, located in a historic riverfront brewhouse redeveloped in 2013, is asking Judge Iain Johnston to grant the company exclusive rights to the name in connection with restaurant and bar services.

A hearing on the case is scheduled for late February, although the parties are currently negotiating a possible settlement, according to Seth Rivard, co-owner of Rockford Brewing Co. in Michigan.

“They own zero rights to that name,” said Rivard. “We’d been using it two years before they even started.”

In the court filing, the Illinois brewery claims its naming rights trace back to 1849, when a pioneer named John Peacock opened a Rockford Brewery on the shore of the Rock River in Rockford, Ill.

The company includes old Prohibition-era beer advertisements as exhibits in its filing in support of its claim, although the new brewery and restaurant did not open its doors until late 2013.

The brewery anchors an ambitious historic redevelopment in the massive 156-year-old, five-story Prairie Street Brewhouse, which includes a banquet space, offices, lofts and a 60-slip marina.

The complex is owned by Lloyd and Diane Koch, who bought it in 2000. Messages left with Lloyd Koch and the brewery's Wisconsin law firm were not immediately returned.

In late November, Rivard and his partners in Michigan sent the Illinois brewery a cease-and-desist letter in protection of their trademark. In the letter, Rivard’s attorneys claim the Michigan brewery was using its mark in commerce as early as Jan. 2012 and “possibly much earlier.”

Michigan's Rockford Brewing Co. formally opened in Dec. 2012, but began selling mug club memberships in 2011.

The letter references the Illinois brewer’s application for a federal trademark registration and claims online marketing on Facebook and elsewhere is causing confusion in the marketplace. The letter threatens a lawsuit.

“We are having a lot of brand confusion since they started using the name,” said Rivard, who said his brewery is exploring distribution of keg beer in Chicago and has bought ingredients and brewing equipment in Illinois before.

“This brewery is a four-hour drive from us,” he said. “We’re right in each other’s backyard.”

Since opening, Rivard’s company has grown annual production to about 1,200 barrels, consumed both in its downtown Rockford pub and distributed throughout Michigan. Expansion into Chicago has “always been part of the plan,” he said.

“When breweries do well in Michigan, they like to go to Chicago,” he said. “It’s natural growth.”

Rockford Brewing is not the first West Michigan craft beer maker to get into a legal tussle with another brewery.

As a startup, Founders Brewing Co. was sued by now-defunct competitor Robert Thomas Brewing for alleged false advertising in 1998 when Founders' initial batches of Pale Ale had to be contract-brewed in Minnesota while the old Brassworks Building taproom was under construction.

In September, Brewery Vivant forced a Pennsylvania brewpub to change the name of a beer amid an out-of-court trademark dispute.

Garret Ellison covers business, government and breaking news for MLive/The Grand Rapids Press. Email him at gellison@mlive.com or follow on Twitter & Instagram