Use of the word Glen

[IainB]

There was a discussion on another forum some time ago in the context of the SWA preventing the Glenora distillery in Canada from using the name Glen on thier whisky. I got quite indignant at the time as I felt the SWA could not take ownership of a Gaelic term for valley.

I was reminded of this recently, and genuinely shocked, on the trip to Cooley. They were saying that when they started up the briefly released a blend with the name Gler Mhor, which happens to be the name of the valley behind the distillery. The were sued by the SWA and decided to drop the name. Now it's one thing in Canada, but to prevent an Irish distillery from using the work really seemed ridiculous to me. As I said on the other forum, there are more than a dozen placenames within a 20 mile radius of my house, with the name Glen.

Any thoughts?

[IrishWhiskeyChaser]

Any thoughts?

Just one of two



The SWA are up their own @r$e's when it come to issues like this if you can excuse my French ... However I think Cooley were wise in one sense not to get involved because as a young start up company of the time they had better uses with their meagre budget than fighting off a pathetic law suit which they would of won but in reality it would of been a loss to the company due to the costs that it would of involved. It would of probably of been more complicated as the SWA could well of suede them in relation to each country they tried to sell this so called Scotch imposter in

I guessing it may have been Connemara though so possibly could be seen as a border line case for the Irish company in an international context especially when nobody previously knew of a peated Irish whiskey

The SWA is a total joke if you ask me and it is only a mouth piece for corporate distilling in Scotland and they abuse their power with legal over load. They even turn on their own, especially the small fry in the Scottish industry. Notable inside run ins have been with independent and forward thinking companies of Compass Box (Indy bottler) and Bruichladdich (Maverick Distillery)

However I was delighted to see that Glenora stuck to their guns kept Glen on their bottles. I mean what smuck firstly goes to all this trouble to pick a fight with a tiny distillery in the back of beyonds of Canada and then try and argue a bottle of Whiskey called Glen Breton sounds Scottish. Oh yea and the big sycamore leaf is a dead give away of trying to be a Scottish single malt

But I suppose it is quite cheeky of the Canadian distillery to use Glenore & Glen Breton, especially when they are only located in a place called Glenville how dare they use the term Glen at all



A quick run down on the legal fight which I am guessing was only defend-able because Canada may not have punitive legal fees as is the case say in Ireland or the UK.

On 24th January 2007 the Canadian Trademarks Opposition Board rejected the arguments of the Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) allowing Glenora the distillery to continue to use the Glen Breton Rare label. The SWA said that the ruling was inconsistent with international case law, and filed an appeal.

On 7th February 2008 the Federal Court of Canada ruled in favour of the SWA that word Glen be dropped from the product's name. However On 18th December 2008 Glenora Distillers went to the Federal Court of Appeal and on 22nd January 2009 the court overturned the lower court’s ruling. The president of the Glenora Distillery, Lauchie MacLean, said, "It takes a big monkey off our back and financial burden, it allows us to plan and distribute and work with our agents around the world to sell our product." SWA spokesman David Williamson said that the association has 60 days in which to file and appeal and “will be studying the ruling carefully with a view to a possible appeal.”



In fighting the case Glenora garnered more world wide interest than they could ever had hoped for and the idiots in the SWA continue like the CIA to hunt out buzz words like 'Glen' and other notable trigger references to justify their positions.

Give me patience

End of political broadcast

[DavidH]

I guessing it may have been Connemara though so possibly could be seen as a border line case for the Irish company in an international context especially when nobody previously knew of a peated Irish whiskey

One of the Millars, I think. This story came up on the Cooley tour.

[Whiskey Pilgrim]

Kaixo Chicos,
The essence of a good independant whiskey club&society is needed,but like anything can get snooty.However as the Irish Distillers are owned by the big guns Diageo and Penod Ricard apart from the independant Cooley,their is no unified Irish Whiskey force.This is where i believe the I.W.S. can play a posivitive role in objectively and independly represent Irish Whiskey in a unified fashion,we also need more Irish Whiskey Ambassadors out their such as Heidi Donelon the C.W.S and me good self.
But to go down the road of the aloof and anal S.W.S, please NO !!

[jcskinner]

Hmm.
Do you mean the SWA or the SMWS in that previous statement?

[JohnM]

The Glen Distillery was established in Cork in 1882. It's in Alfred Barnard's book. The purest of all the Glens, as it wasn't diluted with a suffix.

I'd like to revive that distillery just to p*** the SWA off.

[varizoltan]

The Glen Distillery was established in Cork in 1882. It's in Alfred Barnard's book. The purest of all the Glens, as it wasn't diluted with a suffix.

I'd like to revive that distillery just to p*** the SWA off.

[JohnM]

Actually it was founded in1802