There’s a massive distillery complex
that not many people know about near Frankfort, Kentucky, nestled in a scenic bend
on the meandering Elkhorn Creek. It’s closed
to visitors and doesn’t distill anymore, but it ages Beam Suntory brands and bottles about 12 million of the approximately
21 million cases produced each year in Kentucky by Beam Suntory.
This hidden distillery – DSP 14, or
simply referred to as the “Frankfort Plant” if you dig deep enough on the Beam Suntory
website – has distilling history dating back to at least 1901 when R.A. Baker
established “The Frankfort Distillery,” extending through to 1940 – 1987 when
it was home to Old Grand-Dad. But it
also played a significant role in the development of trademark law and the use
of surnames in a case arising out of the attempted revival of a pre-prohibition
family name.
The case of National Distillers Products Corp. v. K. Taylor Distilling Co., 31
F. Supp. 611 (E.D. Ky. 1940) tells the story of how Col. E. H. Taylor, Jr. and
his sons, Swigert and Kenner, organized “E. H. Taylor, Jr. & Sons” in 1894,
and how the “Old Taylor” brand rose to great prominence. The Court also
explained that when Col. Taylor died in 1923, his sons basically wasted no time
in selling out to what eventually became part of National Distillers
Products Corporation.
As the demise of National
Prohibition became more likely, speculators positioned themselves to enter the
market. One of those entrepreneurs was a
Lexington, Kentucky attorney, S. S. Yantis, who along with his New York City
investment banker relatives, thought the timing was right to invest in a
distillery. Before Repeal, they bought “a
former distillery site located near Forks of Elkhorn in Franklin County, Ky. …
with the view of promoting an enterprise for the manufacture of whiskey in the
event of the repeal of National Prohibition, which seemed impending.” Four months before Repeal, they formed the “Franklin
County Distilling Company” and began preparations at DSP 14.
The Judge noted that the Yantis
family was “entirely without previous experience in the distillery business,”
so they courted two other prominent former distillers who rejected them, before
approaching Kenner Taylor. In September
1933 Kenner Taylor agreed to become President and CEO of the new company for a
five-year term, and he agreed that his name could be used for branding and
advertising purposes.
With the instant prestige afforded
by Taylor’s participation, in October 1933 the two-month-old company changed
its name to “The K. Taylor Distilling Company.”
Repeal came on December 5, 1933, and Taylor left for Florida for his
usual winter vacation on December 28.
Taylor returned to Kentucky on April 1, 1934, but he was ill, and he
died on June 1, 1934. While the company
never actually distilled any whiskey during Taylor’s brief stint as President,
he assisted in launching the “Kenner Taylor” brand using sourced Bourbon.
After Taylor’s death, the company
ramped up use of the “Taylor” name – but not just “Kenner Taylor.” Instead, the Court noted that the company
advertised by using pictures of E. H. Taylor, Jr., Swigert Taylor and Kenner
Taylor, and used the phrase “Taylor-Made Whiskies.” The Court held that this use infringed on the
“Old Taylor” brand because it misled the public into believing that the “K.
Taylor” brand was related to “Old Taylor.”
Therefore, the Court prohibited use of the brand name “K. Taylor” or “Kenner
Taylor” “unless accompanied by a statement plainly and specifically showing
that the defendant is neither the successor to nor connected with the maker of ‘Old
Taylor whiskey’ and that its product is ‘not the product of E. H. Taylor, Jr.
& Sons, or its successors.’” This is
the same result reached almost a decade later when Bill Samuels, Sr. decided to
strike out on his own (Country
Distillers v. Samuels – the rise of Maker’s Mark).
The ruling was issued on February
14, 1940, and The K. Taylor Distilling Company fought on by challenging National
Distillers in the marketplace. A mere
month after the ruling, in March 1940, the company contracted with a Cincinnati
distributor who successfully developed a demand for “K. Taylor, Bottled-in-Bond”
and somewhat less demand for a second K. Taylor brand called “The Belle of
Franklin.” (A breach of contract case
between that distributor and The K. Taylor Distilling Company ensued, resulting
in two interesting decisions that I’ll save for a later post.)
Having won its lawsuit, but seemingly
having failed to destroy The K. Taylor Distilling Company, on August 5, 1940 National
Distillers bought the upstart distillery along with the K. Taylor brand, which
it immediately discontinued. National
Distillers then rechristened the distillery as the Old Grand-Dad Distillery,
making one of the most popular brands of the time. Beam bought National Distillers in 1987 and
moved distillation of Old Grand-Dad to Clermont, but retained the Old Grand-Dad
distillery for aging and bottling.
I admire the valuable information you offer in your articles. Really useful stuff .Never had an idea about this, will look for more of such informative posts from your side.. Good job...Keep it up
ReplyDeleteWow, thanks! Bourbon litigation really helped define the parameters of trademark protection. Glad you're around to help streamline the trademark process for folks!
DeleteExcellent tips. Really useful stuff .Never had an idea about this, will look for more of such informative posts from your side.. Good job...Keep it up
ReplyDeletetrademark attorney
Hello, I have browsed most of your posts. This post is probably where I got the most useful information for my research. Thanks for posting, maybe we can see more on this. Are you aware of any other websites on this subject. Trademark
ReplyDelete