Even if the vernacular often calls it that: Not every cola mix drink can automatically be called “Spezi”. The Augsburg brewery Riegele, which has held the trademark rights to the name “Spezi” since the 1950s, pays attention to this. A specially founded “Spezi Branded Drinks Association” issues licenses to breweries. The Munich Paulaner brewery does not want to pay for such a license, but will continue to call their cola mix drink “Paulaner Spezi”. Now the district court of Munich I has to decide.
Paulaner relies on an almost 50-year-old agreement
According to the Paulaner brewery, an agreement was reached with the Riegele brewery in 1974, according to which Paulaner could also call its drink Spezi. Riegele now wanted to terminate the older agreement with Paulaner and also conclude a license agreement with the Munich brewery. Paulaner defends itself against this with the declaratory action. The parties are currently consulting during a break in the session after the presiding judge had suggested an agreement between the parties.
It’s about a lot of money
Riegele in Augsburg also wants to know how much the Paulaner brewery actually earns with the “Spezi” brand name. According to the court, the value in dispute of the proceedings is at least ten million euros. If they have to conclude a license agreement, they expect a license fee of 5 million euros per year, the Paulaner brewery said in court today. The presiding judge spoke of the court’s tendency to agree with Paulaner: According to the current status, it looks as if Riegele was not allowed to terminate the agreement with Paulaner. However, there is no final verdict yet.
“Spezi” was originally not a Spezi
“A friend has to be there” – that was the slogan shortly after the Second World War, with which the Riegele brewery in Augsburg launched a beer. According to information from the Spezi Markentrinke Verband e. However, it was time-consuming for the innkeepers to mix the drink fresh every time. So the idea was born to simply offer the drink already mixed in bottles and to take the name of the beer for it. The “Spezi” was born.