Craft brewer gets cease-and-desist letter from city over Fort Calgary beer

A local craft brewery has received a cease-and-desist order from the city over its beer named for Fort Calgary.

AJ Di Marino of Elite Brewing says the city has given the company until May 27th to destroy their Fort Calgary labels, or they'll be taken to court.

He says the letters caught him off guard, because he thought they had an agreement with Fort Calgary.

"They asked us to just put a disclaimer on our marketing that the product is not associated with the current Fort Calgary," he said.

"So we did that, we complied, and then the letters came after that. So we were a bit surprised that the letters came despite that we kind of got to a resolution on it prior."

Hopes for a deal

In a statement to CBC News, a spokeswoman saidthe name Fort Calgary is trademarked to the City of Calgary and that Elite Brewing does not have the city's permission to use it.

Di Marino says he is still hoping for a resolution to the issue, and his area councillor, Coun. Gian-Carlo Carra, said that's still possible.

"What I can tell you is that the city is sitting down with Elite Brewing and with Bow River Brewing to work out a business friendly solution that I think will be amenable to all parties and that meeting is taking place tomorrow."