Comments on: Why no London brewing museum?

By: Boak & Bailey UK beer blog » Blog Archive » Bass museum to shut

Boak & Bailey UK beer blog » Blog Archive » Bass museum to shut — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 23:33:38 +0000

[...] moaned about the lack of any museum celebrating London’s brewing heritage in the past, and it seems sad that there is no appetite for this kind of thing even in Burton. [...]

By: The Beer Nut

The Beer Nut — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 15:09:50 +0000

Indeed, as long as they’re the originals, as Bailey says above, you couldn’t. However, big-branded companies tend to be very sensitive about how their product is presented and will use any excuse to shut down what they would regard as unauthorised use.

Claiming that the museum’s use of trademarked material constitutes an attempt to imply an endorsement of the museum by the brewer might be worth a punt in court. If you have a good enough lawyer, natch.

By: Stonch

Stonch — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 12:07:19 +0000

Beer Nut, you couldn’t sue a museum for displaying your old products advertising.

By: The Beer Nut

The Beer Nut — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 16:52:07 +0000

I didn’t even get to the lazy binge-drinking associations in the gutter press and the Do We Really Want This Sort Of Thing? opinion pieces from Concerned Citizens. W*****s. And yes, you’d be damned lucky to get any public money for it as well.

Would CAMRA be at all interested in running something like this?

By: Bailey

Bailey — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 12:25:24 +0000

I can’t imagine that a lawyer could stop a museum displaying a trademarked item, as long as they weren’t selling t-shirts with it on or anything. Equally, the fair use law on use of copyright material should see them OK if they wanted to quote from books, advertisements and so on. Academia and museums are pretty well protected by the law.

But, yes, it would have to be a forward-thinking brewery that would stump up the cash for a museum which highlights their own dodginess and which also promotes their competitors.

And with the current campaigns against “binge drinking”, it’d probably also be a struggle to get any cash off the Government or the Mayor.

By: The Beer Nut

The Beer Nut — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 11:16:29 +0000

Oh yes, the brewers would love that: a museum dedicated all the companies and beers that they’ve successfully manged to kill off. Brewers tend to trade on tradition a lot on their marketing. They like people to think that things were only ever thus. You could almost say they’re the opposite of the transport industry that way.

I’d say that someone setting up this sort of establishment (which would indeed be fabulous) could expect no help from any brewer still trading. Among the first visitors would be lawyers taking note of the use of copyright material and trademarks.

By: Chris Towland

Chris Towland — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 19:36:01 +0000

It’s astounding that there’s not a museum of brewing anywhere in London! I suppose that as a Burton on Trent local I take the Coors Visitor Centre (or Bass Museum as locals still call it) for granted but it’s certainly one of the first places that friends who are visiting the area want to go and see.