A Brittany brewer is in a squeeze after Yoko Ono ordered him to stop selling a bestselling craft beer labelled John Lemon.
The Japanese-American artist and widow of the Beatles star John Lennon claimed it was a breach of a trademark she had registered a decade ago to stop her late husband being mocked, his name misused and his reputation sullied.
Aurélien Picard, the owner of L’Imprimerie brewery in Bannalec, near Finistère, said it had been selling bottles of the lemon and ginger-flavoured craft beer for five years.
He said the name and label, featuring a caricature of the rock legend wearing glasses made of lemon slices, was meant to be a joke and tribute to the singer-songwriter, who was murdered in New York in 1980. Underneath the image are the words “Get Bock” – a play on the word for a strong German lager and the Beatles’ 1969 hit, Get Back.
“It was just a bit of fun: a label to raise a smile,” Picard said. “We have lots of beers with puns on the names of stars and have never had a problem before.”
However, last month Picard received a letter from Ono’s lawyers ordering him to immediately stop using the name or he would face a fine for each day he refused.
“At first, I thought it was a fake, some kind of scam,” Picard told the Guardian. “It was only when I went online to check the lawyers really did exist [that I] found that there had been other cases, I wasn’t the only one to have used that pun, and that people had been penalised.
“The lawyers’ letter warned if I didn’t stop selling the beer, I could be ordered to pay €100,000 immediately, and another €1,500 every day until I stopped. That was really scary.”
He added: “We had no idea the trademark John Lemon had been registered, and anyway, we didn’t even think to check.”
Picard said he was surprised Ono would bother with such small beer.
“We’re only a tiny outfit, with me running it and two employees. I explained to the lawyers that we don’t sell in supermarkets. We deliver our bottles ourselves to bars and crêperies in our local area and asked if they would give me time to sell the bottles that had were already labelled.”
After an exchange of letters, the brewery has been allowed to sell its remaining stock of 5,000 bottles of John Lemon beer before 1 July.
Picard said they were disappearing fast. “People are coming from all over Brittany to get a souvenir beer with the label. It’ll become a collector’s item, with the addition of a lovely story to recount to friends,” he said.
Picard set up the brewery in a former print works in 2017. The first beers were named after elements of the printing press; more recent creations have been named after French and international stars.
The beer is still listed on the brewery’s website, but without any name or picture. Other beers include Jean Gol Potier – La Blonde Parfumée (perfumed blond), a tribute to the fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier.
In 2017, Ono took legal action to halt the sale of a Polish lemonade called John Lemon. Her lawyers said the use of the name infringed the trademark she had reportedly registered the previous year to protect her late husband’s name and personal rights.
Other companies have gone head-to-head with celebrities over product puns. The actor Pedro Pascal is in a legal battle with a Chilean pisco spirit merchant who chose Pedro Piscal for his brand, while a Chilean honey business calling itself Miel Gibson was allowed to keep its name after the actor sued and a bakery in Santiago called Superpan won the right to use images of Clark Kent and his “S” symbol. The South American country also boasts a car wash called Star Wash and a printing business called Harry Plotter.
Back in Brittany, Picard insists he is not bitter. He is now considering renaming the beer Jaune Lemon (Yellow Lemon).