Legendary Canadian band The Tragically Hip has filed a lawsuit against Mill Street Brewery over copyright infringements regarding their ‘100th Meridian’ amber lager.
The lawsuit, filed on Feb. 9 in Ontario Federal Court, claims that Mill Street Brewery has used the fame of the Hip’s popular 1992 hit ‘At the Hundredth Meridian’ along with their image as an iconic Canadian band to market their beer at various moments since being added to the Mill Street lineup in 2014.
The band claims that the Canadian brewery had knowingly used the band’s likeness to direct attention to their own products and “made one or more representations to the public that are false or misleading in a material respect,” causing confusion and an inaccurate association between the band and beer.
The Hip adds that the brewery had capitalized on the band’s final tour in 2016 by suggesting their 100th Meridian beer was the ideal beer to enjoy while watching the Hip perform some of their last shows.
“Mill Street deliberately amplified those efforts during The Tragically Hip’s final and nationally celebrated tour,” according to the lawsuit.
The tour was “precipitated by the announcement that the band’s iconic frontman, Gord Downie, had been diagnosed with terminal cancer.” His condition worsened in the year following the tour, eventually leading to his untimely passing in October 2017.
The band wrote to fans in their ‘Tales from the Hip’ newsletter, noting their struggles of dealing with Mill Street outside of the court and to deliberately clear up any misconceptions surrounding their connection to the beer.
A sceenshot included in the online newsletter 'Tales from the Hip' using the Hip's image for marketing of their beer.
“We knew there is some confusion out there, but we didn’t know how much until recently,” they wrote in the newsletter. “We tried to sort it out with Mill Street for months but were unsuccessful. They didn’t take us seriously and were frankly disrespectful.”
The newsletter also included screenshots of a social media ad promoting the 100th Meridian beer that used a photo of the late Downie on stage performing as well as a product shoot for the amber lager, surrounded by The Tragically Hip records.
The suit alleges that up until August 2020, the ingredients in the 100th Meridian beer were said to be from the “Great Plains” of Canada, a component that the Hip claims is an “obvious reference” to the lyrics of the song ‘At the Hundredth Meridian’––which in the chorus goes, “At the hundredth meridian, where the Great Plains begin.”
Mill Street Brewery, whose flagship brewpub and primary brewery is located in Toronto’s Distillery District, have not publicly addressed the allegations.
You can read The Tragically Hip’s full statement of claim here.
