Old Town Businesses Urge Portland Mayor to Give Up Trademark Battles Over White Stag Sign

"It is wrong and an abuse of power to attempt to bury Old Town Brewing in legal fees."

Old Town Brewing. (Hunter Murphy)
By Katie Shepherd

Business owners in Old Town are urging Mayor Ted Wheeler to abandon a city effort to trademark the “Portland Oregon” sign.

The city’s federal trademark applications have been denied in the past for use on beer and alcohol because a local brewery, Old Town Brewing, already owns a confusingly similar trademark for the leaping stag image.

“Tell your city staffers to stop filing trademark application after trademark application for an image that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has repeatedly determined is confusing,” Dan Lenzen, president of the Old Town Hospitality Group, wrote to the mayor last week. “It is wrong and an abuse of power to attempt to bury Old Town Brewing in legal fees.”

Wheeler’s office says the city is working toward a solution to the trademark dispute that is “mutually agreeable” to both the city and the brewery.

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