LDS Church Bullies Brewery Out Of Beer Brand Referencing Biblical Bees

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has something of a rollercoaster history when it comes to the enforcement of its real, or perceived, intellectual property rights. On the one hand, the church has occasionally been quite lenient when it comes to not trying to battle every use of its name, traditions, or religious texts. The Book of Mormon (the play) does exist, after all, and it’s not like the church put up some big fight over it. On the other hand, the church has also previously tried to use IP laws to hide all kinds of information from the public and even gone after individuals for trying to get trademarks on terms the church feels would denigrate its stature.

Overall, however, the church appears to lean towards being a bullying bad actor when it comes to IP law generally and trademark law specifically. The latest iteration of this routine sees the LDS Church bullying a brewery out of a beer brand name merely because it references a term out of the Book of Mormon.

A Salt Lake brewery is discontinuing its Deseret IPA over a trademark-related complaint from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Bewilder Brewing Co. announced in a newsletter on Monday that it will “phase out” Deseret IPA and replace it with a new product.

“Unfortunately a large tax exempt Utah-based entity wasn’t pleased with our use of the word Deseret,” the newsletter states. “We have been asked to drop our Trademark and discontinue the brand.”

According to the owner of Bewilder Brewing, Cody McKendrick, the church contacted the brewery and claimed that it had trademark rights that would cause confusion among the public because they were in the classifications for foodstuffs and beverages. Left unspecified were what those trademarked terms were, if they were the same or similar to “Deseret”, and the like.

The reason the name of the brew got the attention of the LDS Church is that “deseret” is a term of affection in the Book of Mormon for honeybees, referenced for their work ethic and dutiful peformance of their tasks. The reason any claims of public confusion over this make zero freaking sense should be obvious: the LDS Church prohibits the consumption of alcohol. The idea that a relatively obscure reference to bees from its holy book is somehow going to confuse any general public, perhaps especially in Utah, that the church was somehow associated with a beer brand is plainly absurd.

Note that all of this came after the brewery abandoned a trademark application for the beer brand last fall after the church and a few other businesses that already use the term filed oppositions. But because trademark bullying works, especially when the bully is much larger than the bullied, the brewery in this case is simply giving up on the brand entirely.

“I don’t have any money to fight with [the church], so we’ll just move on from that beer,” McKendrick said.

And so that is the end of the story. Until, perhaps, the LDS Church sees the light and decides to stop playing the IP bully.