Craft Brewers Are Running Out … (blogs.kqed.org)

Columbia? Taken. Mississippi? Taken. Sacramento? El Niño? Marlin? Grizzly? Sorry, they’re all taken.

Virtually every large city, notable landscape feature, creature and weather pattern of North America — as well as myriad other words, concepts and images — has been snapped up and trademarked as the name of either a brewery or a beer. For newcomers to the increasingly crowded industry of more than 3,000breweries, finding names for beers, or even themselves, is increasingly hard to do without risking a legal fight.

Craft Brewers Are Running Out Of Names, And Into Legal Spats
http://blogs.kqed.org/bayareabites/2015/01/05/craft-brewers-are-running-out-of-names-and-into-legal-spats/