EP-260 John Szymankiewicz of the Beer Law Center

Producer’s note: we’re going to continue bringing you timeless stories and important interviews, some of which have newfound relevance because of COVID-19, and some that are explicitly unrelated. This episode you’re about to hear was recorded on February 19th, so the context is removed a bit from what’s happening in the world right now, but the information is still valuable, and we want to share it with you.

Here’s a scenario for today’s beer-loving entrepreneur: you want to start a brewery? There’s a hypothetical situation in which your new business can build its brand by lifting the likeness of celebrities, or imitating famous movies and TV shows, and pretty much take the original ideas of others and slap them on a label or menu board.

Of course, this isn’t entirely hypothetical. Breweries all over the country do some version of this every day, and there are even social media accounts created to track companies that steal the intellectual property of others. In this episode, we’re talking about this and more—and how some companies can legally end up in these odd scenarios, and flirt with basing their entire business models on this kind of intellectual property theft. Or even sell cans full of beer and fruit that could explode.

John Szymankiewicz is a beer attorney. Based in Raleigh, North Carolina, he specializes in a host of practical areas, including contracts and dispute resolution, but also has expertise in trademark and licensing, label approval, and more.

In this conversation, we’ll first learn how someone arrives at this profession in the first place, and why more lawyers could be headed toward similar specialization in beer or elsewhere. But we’ll also get a better grasp about what is legally possible in today’s industry when breweries are constantly looking to stand out. Decisions to toe the line of copyright or trademark infringement may start to appear a bit more black and white, even if the ethics of those decisions can be rather gray.

This is attorney John Szymankiewicz. Listen in.