The name Champagne is trademarked across the world and only means sparkling wine from the Champagne region of France. So if you dare to use the name for anything other than this, be prepared to be sued to your 15th generation descendant.
But Champagne has a nickname – bubbly. While that likely can’t be trademarked like Champagne, a derivation has been. Bubly is the line of sparkling water with different flavours.
Now let’s say at some future date that the Champagne region of France intends to use the more cutesy name, bubbly, in advertisements for their sparkling wine. But they make the mistake of spelling it bubly. Couldn’t Bubly sue big Champagne so badly that Champagne prices have to be doubled or tripled to pay for it?
It would be funny to see Champagne on the wrong side of the law.
Of course this is a two edged sword, and I wouldn’t like to see the other sparking wine makers making the same mistake and being similarly sued by Bubly.
But then maybe other sparking wine makers could advertise themselves as bubbly with a bite. Thus there would be little legal reason to sue them if they mistakenly left out a b in bubbly, as it would certainly not be the sparkling water that they are trying to use the good name of. Then perhaps things would be okay for the makers of sparkling wine.
But wait. Barq’s root beer pop has the slogan Barq’s has bite. Perhaps sparkling wine couldn’t use that as an out. They’d just be sued by a different soft drink maker. Barq’s may mean caffeine instead of alcohol but I think they would definitely have a case that could successfully be prosecuted.
So maybe the sparkling wine makers could find a word that is somewhat like bite to mean they have alcohol in them. Maybe sting would work. How does “Bubbly with a sting,” sound?
