WASHINGTON - The U.S. government and the Anheuser-Busch Co. claimed victory on Tuesday in a World Trade Organization battle to protect the Budweiser brand name against use by a Czech brewer.

U.S. trade officials said a confidential WTO panel report also sided with the United States in its claim that the European Union does not provide the same degree of protection for foreign place names for food, such as Florida oranges and Idaho potatoes, as it does for its own.

"This is a big win for American farmers and food processors," U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick said in a statement.

The EU protects some 600 regional food names, as well as around 4,000 wines, by insisting that nobody can use the name who does not make the product in the relevant region.

Brussels' efforts to use ongoing world trade talks to strengthen those protections has been stiffly resisted by the United States and other major food producing nations, such as Australia.

A U.S. trade official, speaking on condition that he not be identified, said the WTO panel ruled that the state-owned Czech brewer, Budejovicky Budvar, could not justify its use of the Budweiser name on the grounds that it was the translation of a place name it had registered for exclusive use under the European Union "geographic indications" regime.

"This decision by the WTO halts Budejovicky Budvar's efforts to rely on this registration of 'Budejovicke pivo' to justify its use of the Budweiser name," Anheuser-Busch International President Stephen Burrows said in a statement.

Anheuser-Busch, the world's largest brewer, complains that Budejovicky Budvar has marketed beer labeled "Budweiser" in European countries where the St. Louis-based company owns the prior rights to the brand.

The WTO panel ruling "is an an important victory for Anheuser-Busch," Burrows said.

In Brussels, European Commission Trade spokeswoman Claude Veron-Reville told reporters the EU considered the panel ruling a vindication of its policies since "it confirms there can be some co-existence" between products protected by the geographic indications regime and company trademarks.

But the U.S. official said the WTO panel ruled geographical indication protections could not be extended to translations if that would cause confusion in the marketplace and "deny the rights of the trademark owner to market that trademark."

Anheuser-Busch said it began using the Budweiser trademark in 1876, 19 years before Budejovicky Budvar was established.

The two companies have clashed repeatedly over the use of the Budweiser name, which refers to the German name for Budvar, the beer's place of origin.

Anheuser-Busch, which sells beer in more than 80 countries, has rights to the "Budweiser" and "Bud" names in most of the world.

The U.S. company has already stopped Budvar from using or registering Budweiser in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Denmark, Italy, New Zealand and Spain.

Budejovicky Budvar has argued that its use of the Budweiser name is protected by international agreements on intellectual property.
 

The article originally appeared in the Reuters News Service on December 21, 2004 and was written by Doug Palmer.