Boston Beer Company (The Sam Adams folks) are suing Anchor Brewing. Knee jerk question. Why would two breweries about as far from each other as two breweries can be in the United States sue each other? A little thing called a non-compete clause. Basically – one of the ex-Boston Beer Execs can’t go work for a competing company. Now another question. Does Anchor qualify?
BSJ Legal Dude Matt Crouse (@TheReal_MCrouse)
This seems like a complicated situation for Boston Beer. On one hand, they had the non-compete agreement with Hausner which would prevent him from working with a competitor for a certain amount of time following his employment with Boston Beer. But I question what the definition of the “Better Beer” category encompasses. That appears to be a very broad term which could be interpreted many different ways and it all depends on how the judge in the case construes its meaning. My personal feeling is that Boston Beer may have a hard time defending the validity of the non-compete agreement.
this does seem a tad rediculous, but I don’t think how far away the companies are should factor in at all, I mean I live in NH and I know of a few places that sell Anchor ales around here. l’ve never been impressed with them though… I don’t think Boston Beer has anything to worry about… Also what do they mean by “Better Beer”, that is extremely vague…