Glen Breton - Whisky or Scotch Whisky?

Well, I think I will weigh in on the topic if only from a legal perspective. I have, incidentally, tried, Glen Breton (at the Farmer's Market in Halifax) and found it to be very good.

So, to bring you up to date. Glenora Distilleries of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia filed a trade-mark application in Canada for the mark "Glen Breton" in association with single malt whisky. For some reason it is a "proposed use" application even though the mark has been in use already for a number of years.

Then, the Scotch Whisky Association decides it is going to oppose the application on the basis, apparently, that people will associate Glen Breton with scotch whisky (and being, therefore, from Scotland). The opposition was denied. The Scotch Whisky Association has, however, vowed to appeal (at least according to the press).

Interestingly, no where on the bottle for Glen Breton is the word "scotch" used. So it would seem that the Scotch Whisky Association's principal argument is that the word "Glen" is inexorably linked to Scotland and, as such, reasonable people would assume Glen Breton comes from Scotland. Interestingly the Association provides a link as to importance of the name "Scotch Whisky" but no where in there is the word "Glen" mentioned.

Now of course I entered the word "glen" into Wikipedia and this is the result.

You will see that various geographic places are mentioned, some in Scotland, many not. Also interesting it the fact that the etymology of the word, in relation to a river, is Welsh. Of course Wikipedia is not determinative but it is still interesting.

All of that brings me to the World Intellectual Property Organization and the notion of geographic names and their use to distinguish foods (for example - Bordeaux). Here is an article from WIPO on the topic.

Canada has a list of wines and spirits which are protected. Here it is. Scotch Whisky is on the list. Glen is not.  The Canadian Intellectual Property Office has some good articles (here and here) on the topic of geographic indicators and trade-marks.

I have no idea how this is going to play out. I am not sure that the Association has a strong argument. However, as the old saying goes, nothing ventured nothing gained. I will keep you posted. In the meantime, happy reading.