Non-alcoholic brewery, Jump Ship Brewing, has begun legal proceedings against multinational brewery and pub chain, BrewDog, over the use of the beer brand name ‘Shore Leave’.
Jump Ship launched the first edition of its Shore Leave beer in mid-2022, then released a second sour beer edition in May 2023. Both these versions of Shore Leave were shortlisted for the Scottish Beer Awards, in 2022 and 2023 respectively.
However, in July this year, the multi-award-winning Scottish company, run by Sonja Mitchell, became aware that BrewDog had shared an image online of a soon-to-launch beer branded as ‘Shore Leave’, with the proposed tagline ‘It’s time to jump ship’.
Despite subsequent communications with BrewDog, the brewing giant has not withdrawn its beer, with Jump Ship’s Mitchell stating that she has been unable to persuade it to recognise the ‘damage and confusion’ being caused to her original brand.
“I am incredibly disappointed that despite contacting BrewDog directly, I have been forced down the legal route to defend all that I and my team have built,” said Mitchell.
“We have put considerable investment into the development of our Shore Leave series of beers – from the creation of the beer itself to the branding, packaging and distribution. We cannot afford to lose that. Jump Ship has developed a steadfast reputation for great tasting beers with ethics at our heart and this is what we’re seeking to protect.
“At the point where BrewDog launched its beer, Jump Ship was the only brewer in the UK market with a beer called Shore Leave in production,” she stressed. “The basis of our claim is that BrewDog’s actions cause a risk of confusion amongst our stockists and drinkers and this causes financial harm to our brand. This is a period of exciting and positive growth for Jump Ship with growing sales in the UK and beyond and this matter is one we’re keen to clear up.”
Responding to Jump Ship’s legal proceedings, a Brewdog spokesperson said: “As the registered owner of the Shore Leave trademark in the UK, we are obviously surprised at this action, but also disappointed.
“Ms Mitchell might have challenged our trademark application months ago as is standard practice, but chose not to. We’ve sought to settle this matter amicably and offered a range of fantastic collab ideas which would have had a huge boost for Ms Mitchell’s brewery. We even agreed not to use the phrase ‘Jump Ship’ in our advertising as a gesture of goodwill.
“We’d much rather work with the industry than against it. We regret Ms Mitchell has decided to take this action instead of working collaboratively with us to help her business grow.”
Jump Ship first began production in December 2019, the brainchild of Ms Mitchell, a keen sailor, beer-lover and mother of three, who decided to ‘jump ship’ from her marketing job to launch a business inspired by the love of beer – but a horror of hangovers.
Since inception, Jump Ship has created a range of six non-alcoholic beer and lagers, all with nautical names, including Shore Leave. The brewery has won awards in the UK and internationally, including best No and Low Alcohol Lager in the World Beer Awards 2021.
In 2022, Mitchell launched an equity-based crowdfunding campaign that attracted investment of £366,000, exceeding its target of £280,000 in just two days. That funding is now supporting the build of a new brewery at Rosemains Steadings near Pathhead, Midlothian.
Jump Ship now supplies around 240 stockists around the UK, including bars, pubs, restaurants, and shops, as well as selling direct online, while donating at least 10% of the profits to a variety of charities, which are nominated by Jump Ship’s customers or ‘ship mates’.
Thus well-known as a small, innovative Scottish brewer, Jump Ship noted that its existence and its brands were not a secret to users of BrewDog’s own ‘Equity Punk’ online forum, where it picked out the following customer quotes to justify its defence of ‘Shore Leave’: “I’m a big fan of Jump Ship and their products. I wouldn’t like to see us cutting across their bows” & “Jump Ship already have a range of (alcohol free) beers called Shore Leave. Seems strange to put out branding about a beer called Shore Leave with the tagline Time to Jump Ship.”
