Breton brewer forced to stop selling craft beer after Beatles singer’s widow registered lemon name to stop him being mocked
A Brittany brewer is in a squeeze after Yoko Ono ordered him to stop selling a bestselling craft beer labelled John Lemon.
The Japanese-American artist and widow of the Beatles star John Lennon claimed it was a breach of a trademark she had registered a decade ago to stop her late husband being mocked, his name misused and his reputation sullied.
Aurélien Picard, the owner of L’Imprimerie brewery in Bannalec, near Finistère, said it had been selling bottles of the lemon and ginger-flavoured craft beer for five years.
He said the name and label, featuring a caricature of the rock legend wearing glasses made of lemon slices, was meant to be a joke and tribute to the singer-songwriter, who was murdered in New York in 1980. Underneath the image are the words “Get Bock” – a play on the word for a strong German lager and the Beatles’ 1969 hit, Get Back.
