If you haven’t been following along on our posts about a trademark dispute between the famed Ravinia Festival Association (RFA) and Ravinia Brewing for the last decade or so, here is a quick synopsis. The RFA operates the Ravinia Festival outdoor music venue north of Chicago. “Ravinia” isn’t a fanciful name, as locals here know. It was the name of a neighborhood that was eventually annexed by what is now Highland Park. Despite that fact, the RFA managed to acquire a trademark for the name “Ravinia” and has since selectively wielded it to slap around other local businesses. One of those was Ravinia Brewing, which the RFA sued 2023 for trademark infringement, despite a previous agreement between the two parties that allowed the brewery to use its name.
That case was settled this past summer, with Ravinia Brewing agreeing to change its name and some branding, with the RFA pledging to help out with the rebrand efforts. The extent of what that help would entail went undisclosed publicly. Despite that nicety, this was a case in which trademark bullying worked, as the brewery chose not to fight the good fight, which had the possibility of getting these bad trademarks canceled.
And now the brewery has revealed its new branding. And… it’s only marginally different?
Ravinia Brewing, a 10-year-old craft brewer that agreed to give up its moniker after a legal trademark battle with Ravinia Festival, is rebranding as Steep Ravine Brewing Co. The name is changing, but many of the beers and one of its iconic logos — a bicycle-riding “tree guy” — will remain the same.
“This is a pivotal day in our evolution, and we’re moving forward under this new brand,” Kris Walker, co-founder of Ravinia Brewing, said Tuesday. “But there’s still going to be work to do for us to make this whole transition.”
The shift from Ravinia to Steep Ravine will roll out over several months, Walker said, with limited-edition gold cans bearing the new name available Tuesday at its Highland Park and Logan Square taprooms. Availability at the Chicago location also will be limited by plans to shut down the taproom within weeks.
I write this post for two main reasons. First is to bring this story to a close, with the unhappy ending of the brewery having to actually change its identity over this whole stupid non-issue. Second is to highlight just how much trouble results like this cause for the bullied entity.
Signage has to be changed. Inventory in stock has to be rebranded, or simply tossed as a loss. The logistics around what to do with beer that is already in other venues with the old branding has to be ironed out. And one of the locations that particularly irritated the RFA is simply shutting down entirely.
The original Highland Park taproom will undergo “modest updates,” but the Logan Square taproom — a source of contention with Ravinia Festival over the use of the north suburban name in Chicago — will be closing Dec. 14.
That is a real establishment providing real jobs to real people in a real Chicago neighborhood that just, poof, goes away. All because the RFA wielded a geographic trademark that either never should have been granted in the first place, or at least should have been narrow enough that a music venue and brewery could coexist with one another peacefully.
Not all stories have happy endings, of course. But seeing that play out here in my backyard still sucks.
